Massachusetts lawmakers have voted in favor of passing a privacy bill that would give state residents new rights to access and delete data held by big tech companies. The bill also prohibits companies from selling users' precise location data.
Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passed the state's Consumer Data Privacy Act 146-0 on Thursday. This comes months after all 40 senators voted to advance their own bill in September. The bill will now be finalized by the Senate and sent to the governor's office, where it is expected to be signed into law. It's not immediately clear when that will happen.
The move makes Massachusetts the latest U.S. state to push for stronger consumer privacy rights after years of documented abuses by the broader technology, advertising and social media industries. Unlike many of the world's major democracies, the United States does not have a national privacy law, but each state in the United States has filled the legal gap by implementing its own patchwork of privacy rules that apply to the state.
If enacted, the bill would apply to companies that handle the personal data of more than 100,000 consumers. It will have a huge impact not only on Silicon Valley tech giants, but also on mid-sized startups.
This law prohibits sharing or selling sensitive information without the user's explicit consent. This data includes biometrics (such as health data, genetic information, and fingerprints), precise geolocation data, and other indicators of religion, immigration status, and sexual orientation.
The collection and sale of people's location data has been a major flashpoint in the privacy debate for years. For years, data brokers have relied on app developers selling users' location data, repackaging it and selling it to stalkers, governments, the military and anyone else who can pay. In many cases, governments say they don't need a warrant to buy commercially available data on the open market.
The Biden administration came close to banning the sale of sensitive data on Americans at the federal level, but the Trump administration later reversed the change.
By extending the ban on location data to both residents and visitors, the Massachusetts law would effectively create a blanket ban on the sale of location data across the state. The bill is expected to have broad implications for startups that collect, share and sell location data in Massachusetts, as well as advertising companies that use location data to target people with ads.
According to local media outlet WBUR and Massachusetts newspaper The Linn Journal, state lawmakers worked on a bipartisan basis in the belief that privacy is a fundamental right of Massachusetts residents.
The bill was generally praised by privacy groups and advocacy groups.
Evan Greer, director of the Fight for Future advocacy group, said Massachusetts' bill “takes a major step toward cracking down on Big Tech's surveillance abuses,” while the ACLU praised the landmark bill, which positions the state as a “leader in protecting personal privacy and curbing digital surveillance.”
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