Proposed extensive state privacy bills for Washington, Florida, and Indiana
At the opening of the Washington State Legislature, a handful of privacy bills were proposed. The Washington Privacy Act, now in its fourth consecutive session, was revived by Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D-Wash.). He also proposed a companion bill, Senate Bill 5813, which includes provisions on the Global Privacy Control, children’s privacy, data brokers. House Bill 1850, another comprehensive privacy law was also proposed. Meanwhile, in Indiana, Rep. Carey Hamilton (D-Ind) proposed a comprehensive privacy bill, House Bill 1261. After its first reading, the legislation was then referred to the House Committee on Commerce, Small Business, and Economic Development. Florida Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R-Fla.) reintroduced Senate Bill 1864 aka Florida Privacy Protection Act. After falling short on a compromise among two privacy bills, the bill returns from the last session. State Rep Fiona McFarland (R-Fla.) is also preparing to resubmit her comprehensive privacy bill soon in the 2022 session.
Source: IAPP, Washington State Legislature, Indiana General Assembly, The Florida Senate
Google Analytics disregards the GDPR according to Austrian DPA.
The use of Google Analytics violates the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) according to Austria’s Data Protection Authority (DPA). NOYB, a non-governmental organization filed the charges. The DPA then started their investigation on companies that used Google Analytics but were not compliant with the “Schrems II” decision on data transfers from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). According to the CJEU, the US-EU data transfer agreement “Privacy Shield” is not compliant with the GDPR. Their 2020 ruling made most data transfers to the US illegal. Many EU companies that use Google Analytics have delivered their data to Google, who then processed the data in the US.
Repeat demand of the US Chamber of Commerce for Federal Privacy Law
Members of Congress received a letter from the US Chamber of Commerce requesting the passing of a federal privacy law. The business organization appeals for drafting the federal law that is “clear and fair to business and empowering to consumers.” In their letter, they also pointed out that the assortment of state privacy laws is a disadvantage. According to them, the different laws “would take significantly diverse approaches on enforcement, duties, and scope that would make compliance incredibly difficult for small businesses to compete.”
56% of surveyed registered US voters are in favor of Federal Privacy Law
Two thousand registered US voters were surveyed by Morning Consult-Politico, showing a majority approves of a federal privacy law. Done last Jan. 8 and 9, the poll showed 56% of voters across parties either fully or somewhat support the passing of federal privacy legislation. According to Morning Consult-Politico,” a proposal to make it illegal for social media companies to use personal data to recommend content via algorithms received bipartisan.” 10% of the voters are strongly opposed to a federal privacy law.
Source: IAPP, Morning Consult
