Digital Advertising, Consumer Privacy and More Digital ads—and control of the user data that makes them so profitable—are the heart of the consumer privacy debate. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “ Understanding the Digital Advertising Ecosystem and the Impact of Data Privacy and Competition Policy ” to grapple with these complicated and often conflicting ideas. Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Lindsey Graham opened the hearing by asking the panelists if Congress should pass a federal privacy law at all, and if they thought we should have “ one national standard ”—a potentially dangerous idea , as it could preempt stronger existing state laws . The panelists more or less supported a single national law, though we were glad to see Dr. Johnny Ryan argue that a federal law should preempt state law only to the extent that it provides greater protections. Dr. Fiona M. Scott Morton further clarified that even with a strong federal standard, s...