Half of State Privacy Laws Don’t Protect Consumer Privacy

Well that is an alarming headline. But not a big surprise when many state privacy laws have been written by lobbyists and herded through passage by legislators on their payroll. Well, technically, they would call them campaign contributions but you get the idea.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the US Public Interest Research Group say that of the 19 states with data privacy laws, eight failed an assessment. Only two, Maryland and California, limit what data the companies can collect, prohibit the sale of sensitive data and bans targeted advertising to minors.

Lawmakers in Vermont (the governor vetoed a tough privacy bill last year), Massachusetts and Maine are working on tougher laws now.

Seventeen of 19 states received a grade of C+ or below. None received an A. Eight, like Texas, received an F and four received a D. This reflects the fact that many provisions were left out of these state bills.

The report can be found here.

Credit: The Record

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