It should be obvious to anyone dealing with daily spam calls on cellphones and landlines that technology has far outpaced our privacy protections.
Data brokers and Big Tech conglomerates can seemingly do anything they want with our personal information, including selling our cellphone location data to the highest bidder.
That’s why we’re encouraged to see that Massachusetts has taken steps to clamp down on the exploitation of our personal information.
The latest bid to restore our privacy protections occurred June 4, when the House unanimously passed a major data privacy bill that would give consumers new rights and impose restrictions on companies’ use of personal information.
Representatives voted 146-0 in favor of the bill, which would require affirmative consent before sensitive information can be sold or shared, ban the sale of precise geolocation data, create special protections for minors, and authorize enforcement by the attorney general and, in some cases, private individuals.
The bill must now be reconciled with the Senate version, which passed by a 40-0 vote in September. Among its important reforms, it also banned the sale of our sensitive data, including precise geolocation information.
According to details released by the Massachusetts Legislature, the House bill requires that personal data collection be proportionate to providing requested services, and data must be protected and deleted when no longer necessary or required by law.
Under the bill, data subject rights would extend to all residents in Massachusetts. These rights include the ability to access their personal information, to correct inaccurate information, to opt out of certain processes such as targeted advertising, to transport personal data, and to delete certain information.
The legislation also specifies that sensitive data cannot be sold or shared without a user’s affirmative consent. Companies cannot sell sensitive data without additional unambiguous, affirmative consent from a consumer.
Sensitive data includes information such as biometric or genetic information, precise geolocation data, health and wellness information, reproductive and sexual health data, data of a minor under 18, government-issued identifiers, and data that reveals an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, national origin or citizenship or immigration status, religious beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, union membership, status as a military service member or veteran, and status as a victim of a crime.
The bill includes special protections for individuals under 18, including a prohibition on targeted advertising to minors.
It also restricts the trade of location, which helps protect people from surveillance, stalking and the misuse of sensitive personal information. This protection is extended to both residents of Massachusetts and visitors, which is especially important now for people who travel to and within Massachusetts.
The bill grants the attorney general rulemaking authority, but also includes a private right of action, which allows consumers to hold the largest data holders accountable for any violations they may make. Rulemaking authority will allow the attorney general to keep abreast of technological changes and provide greater clarity in areas where it is needed.
“This legislation is about ensuring that the Commonwealth’s laws keep pace with the challenges of an increasingly data-driven world, where technology is embedded in nearly every aspect of daily life. Consumers deserve meaningful protections for their personal information and greater control over how that information is collected, used, and sold,” House Speaker Ron Mariano and House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz said in a joint statement. “This bill establishes common-sense safeguards for sensitive data, strengthens transparency, and promotes accountability for entities that profit from personal information.”
State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, co-chair of the Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity Committee, told reporters the legislation responds to a modern economy built on the collection and sale of personal data, and puts consumers at the center of decisions about how that information is used.
“It gives the AG exclusive rights on everybody but the large data holders, so other people privately can have a private right of action against the large data holders,” said Farley-Bouvier, a Pittsfield Democrat.
That private right of action is important because “we want to be clear that we want to protect the small businesses, the local businesses, but it’s that big tech industry that we want to give more teeth to on the enforcement,” she clarified.
Several lawmakers made similar arguments on the House floor. Rep. David Vieira said the measure builds on prior bipartisan privacy efforts grounded in the principle that privacy is a fundamental right.
“We’re just looking for a balanced bill, right? And so, we think with affirmative, informed, clear, unambiguous consent, that it has a lot of protections for our consumers,” Farley-Bouvier said.
Asked how that translates to the average citizen, Farley-Bouvier said it could be a button they press, “but it has to be a lot clearer than what we experience now.”
We trust the compromise crafted by House and Senate negotiators will include the key elements of these two bills, thus restoring an individual’s right to decide how their personal information is used.
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