ACEC Joins Stakeholder Letter Opposing Intrusive “Transparency” Legislation

ACEC News / Advocacy

March 28, 2019

ACEC Joins Stakeholder Letter Opposing Intrusive “Transparency” Legislation

ACEC was recently featured in a Bloomberg Law article, States want to snoop on contractors, but plans are stalling, written by Bloomberg’s Andrew Wallender and Sara Merken. The article focused on legislation that is being offered in multiple states to monitor the computer activity of contractors doing work on public sector projects.

The technology that would be mandated through this legislation would automatically collect data on all work performed by a contractor on a computer, including in many instances tracking total keystrokes and mouse event frequency and recording screenshots at least once every three minutes.

The legislation, which is being shopped to the states by the software company TransparentBusiness, has raised significant privacy and compliance concerns among members of the ACEC state organizations, whose members already operate under federal and state regulations and agency policies that govern and manage contract negotiation, oversight, and deliverables.

The Council has also raised serious cyber security concerns over the software mandates covered in the proposed legislation. Since so much of the services provided by A/E firms go well beyond computer key strokes, ACEC state chapters have effectively argued that this proposed mandate has little relevance to how the industry operates.

ACEC recently joined other professional services groups from the technology, cybersecurity, and construction industries on an open letter to governors, state lawmakers, state IT leaders and procurement officials that outlined their shared concerns on this legislation. To read the letter, click here.

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