Massachusetts Progresses its Data Privacy Law

Mar 2, 2022 | Privacy & Security

Massachusetts has advanced its data privacy bill.

For the first time, the commonwealth has moved the Massachusetts Information Privacy Act beyond the committee stage.

As with all other states who have either passed data privacy legislation or have a proposed bill on the table, Massachusetts wants its citizens to have greater control over their personal information in the digital economy.

In progressing its bill, Massachusetts moves closer to California, Virginia, and Colorado, which have all passed state privacy legislation, although California’s updated law (CPRA), and the laws in Virginia and Colorado, don’t take effect until 2023. All these laws restrict how businesses can collect and use the personal information of residents within the relevant state. 

State-level pushes for comprehensive privacy bills have never looked stronger, with Maryland, Oklahoma, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida and Alaska also likely to pass laws in 2022.

Of course, the states continue to act in the absence of a federal privacy law, which appears to remain a long way off, locked in partisan divisions over the detail.

But the goal remains a single federal privacy law with streamlined compliance obligations for business and clear rights for consumers. Recent discussions have looked at what might be the minimum protections of a national law, and survey results show 75% of all Americans want some data privacy standards at the national level.


Photo By Yuriy K

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