Senate moves to crack down on ‘Wild West’ of data collection
Senate President said the bill would give Massachusetts "the strongest, strictest data privacy laws in the entire country."
SENATE DEMOCRATS ESCALATED the debate about data privacy Thursday by rolling out a new proposal that could reshape how major, influential technology companies interact with consumers in Massachusetts.
The Senate will vote next week on wide-ranging legislation that would erect strict guardrails around collection and distribution of personal data, a practice that has become ubiquitous with cell phones in every pocket.
Under the bill top Senate Democrats unveiled, Bay Staters would gain new power to understand what information companies are gathering, correct any inaccuracies, and opt out of allowing their data to be sold, including for targeted advertising. The proposal seeks even tighter limits around personal data for minors.
Senate President Karen Spilka said the bill would give Massachusetts “the strongest, strictest data privacy laws in the entire country.”
“This legislation is going to end the Wild West of data collection in Massachusetts,” she said. “We give residents control over what information is shared, and we make clear that kids should be off-limits, totally off-limits, and this will protect minors from surveillance and targeted advertising. It’s going to put consumers in the driver’s seat.”
The proposal will likely trigger a political fight between Massachusetts lawmakers and some of the most powerful companies – including Facebook and Google – in the country, who for years have been gathering, sharing and selling user data as a core part of their business.
Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem, the chamber’s point-person on the topic, said her team “met with everyone, anyone that wanted to meet with us.”
“Nobody likes controls,” Creem replied when asked if she expects industry opposition. “The fact that we’re going to be collecting less data means less sales, less information they have to sell to other people.”
Representatives for Google, Meta and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Earlier this year, Andrew Kingman, a lawyer representing a coalition that includes Amazon, Google and Meta, praised a different data-privacy bill filed by House Majority Leader Kate Hogan, which overlaps with the new Senate proposal in several ways. It similarly seeks to give consumers new power to understand what data companies have collected and to opt out of having that information sold, but the Hogan measure took a somewhat different approach to regulating collection of data from minors.
That Hogan bill is similar to the framework in place in most other states that have enacted new data-privacy laws other than California, Kingman told a legislative committee in April.
Absent a consensus on data privacy in Washington, DC, state governments have been left to pursue their own varying approaches to the topic, at times drawing opposition from Silicon Valley giants or more local businesses who might also be affected.
Twenty other states had “comprehensive data privacy laws in place” as of April 7, according to Bloomberg Law.
It’s not yet clear if the plan from Senate Democrats has buy-in from other Beacon Hill power players. House Speaker Ron Mariano and his deputies have not outlined any specific position on addressing data privacy this term.
“I am pleased to see the Senate advance data privacy legislation and am grateful for their commitment to consumer protection,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in a statement Thursday evening. “My office is reviewing the bill and looks forward to continuing the work of protecting our residents’ privacy from companies who may misuse their personal data.”
For years, tech companies have been collecting information from their users and selling personalized advertisements based on a consumer’s recent internet activity.
“I don't think there's any doubt in my mind that this [data] is being sold, and there are no rules limiting it now,” Creem said.
Creem said the 33-page bill rolled out Thursday weaves together “best practices” already deployed in other states.
Companies would be allowed to gather only data “reasonably necessary to provide or maintain” their product or service, which Creem said would decrease the total amount of information collected.
Consumers – defined as residents of Massachusetts – would gain the ability to see which third parties have gained access to their information, delete personal details, and opt out of both the sale of personal data and also data collection related to targeted ads.
The bill seeks even stronger protections around “sensitive data,” which would include anything involving a government-issued identifier such as a Social Security number, health status, biometric data, a consumer’s precise location, demographic identifiers such as religion or citizenship status, and information related to sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual activity.
Sale of that more sensitive data would be outright banned. A company could still transfer that kind of data without any financial transaction involved but would first need to obtain a user’s affirmative consent.
The proposal would also prohibit the sale of any data collected from a minor. Creem said the bill “bans all targeted advertising to minors, period.”
Enforcement of the proposed new law would fall to the attorney general’s office. The bill would not create a private right of action, meaning that individual consumers would not be empowered to file lawsuits themselves if they feel their data has been misused. Vermont lawmakers considered a private right of action last year when they took up their own data-privacy proposal, but the measure proved controversial.
Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said Massachusetts “urgently needs this state law to ensure that data brokers and others do not collect or manipulate our personal information in ways that threaten our safety, discriminate against us, or otherwise violate our privacy.”
“Protecting privacy is more urgent today than ever before, as the Trump administration unleashes attack after attack on our most cherished rights and freedoms — and as Big Tech interests do all they can to amass power,” Rose said in a statement.
Massachusetts Democrats already teamed up this year to enact a new law expanding protections for patients and providers of reproductive and gender-affirming care, including by limiting the release of sensitive health care data targeted by some Republican-controlled states.
Creem said the new measure “complements” that law, and Spilka described it as the latest entry in her chamber’s response to President Donald Trump.
“We know that Big Tech companies are sharing and they are profiting from that data, your data, and it's clear that they have cozied up to Trump and would do whatever he wants, even if that means sharing your sensitive data like biometrics, your location, your personal health data, including reproductive health,” Spilka said. “This means that those companies who have cozied up to Trump will not be able to store that data and would not have it if the federal government ever came asking for it.”
The State Senator representing Burlington is Cindy Friedman; residents can contact her office at Cindy.Friedman@masenate.gov or (617) 722-1432 to share their thoughts about this new bill.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
