As the digital transformation touches every corner of our lives — from how we bank and shop to how we access healthcare and communicate — online privacy has become one of the defining public policy issues of our time. Legislation aimed at protecting consumer data remains under consideration in Albany, and new laws have been introduced in Congress and statehouses throughout the country. The debate about these bills has increasingly hinged on whether proposed laws should be enforced by government agencies, like the state attorney general’s office, or if private, profit-motivated law firms should be deputized to file lawsuits.

A new report from the New York Civil Justice Institute reveals that a “litigation industrial complex” has grown around privacy laws that include broad private rights of action. These private rights of action allow attorneys to file, and profit from, lawsuits for things typically regulated by the government. These have become problematic provisions that have led to a flood of questionable, no-harm class actions, and settlements that leave the supposedly aggrieved consumers empty-handed. The lawyers appear to benefit more than the consumers........

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