U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon lobbying

After a Reuters article published Friday exposed how Amazon.com Inc spearheaded an under-the-radar campaign to weaken privacy safeguards in 25 states while gathering a rich collection of personal data on American consumers, five members of Congress called for nationwide consumer-privacy legislation. "Amazon has initiated a campaign to destroy privacy legislation while their gadgets listen to and monitor our lives," Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, who has been involved in bipartisan discussions on privacy legislation, said on Twitter on Friday. "This is now the standard Big Tech move: spend money and hire legions of lobbyists to block serious reforms in the shadows while claiming popular support." He argued that the findings highlighted the need for bipartisan action on better privacy laws. Because members of Congress have been stuck on the topic for years, no substantial federal privacy legislation has passed. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who...