Long-anticipated bills by Vermont state Rep. Monique Priestly (D) on comprehensive data privacy (H-208), an age-appropriate design code (H-210) and data broker deletion requirements (H-211) formally entered the legislature on Wednesday. The 2025 privacy bill “contains a number of adjustments that address concerns from stakeholders, including members of the business community, while maintaining the core consumer protections expected by Vermonters,” said an H-208 summary.
More companies could become subject to the Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act under changes contemplated by the original law’s sponsor. Senate Energy and Technology Chair Daniel Zolnikov (R) told Privacy Daily on Thursday he wants to slash the legislation’s applicability thresholds and tighten exemptions. Moreover, under a bill (SB-297) he filed earlier this week, Montana would also add child protections and cut in half the comprehensive privacy law’s 60-day right to cure.
A significant proposed edit to the Maryland privacy law’s data minimization rule would be “a huge boon to the companies that already exploit our data,” Eric Null, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) privacy & data project co-director, said Monday. However, Keir Lamont, Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) senior director-U.S. legislation, said the bill would bring clarity only for businesses that don’t handle sensitive data.
It’s up to social media companies, which make “trillions of dollars” a year, to determine how to effectively verify users’ ages and parental consent for minors, said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) on Monday. Tong urged legislators to pass a kids’ social media bill (HB-6857) at a livestreamed Connecticut General Law Committee hearing. Tech industry groups condemned the proposal in statements.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should direct a lower court to enjoin California’s 2024 law (SB-976) restricting social media feeds for minors, consumer privacy advocates and free-market groups said in amicus briefs filed Thursday (case 25-146). As it urged the appeals court to reverse the U.S. District Court for Northern California, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) raised privacy concerns about requiring companies to conduct age verification.
AI is an increasing part of privacy compliance jobs, practitioners said at Privado’s Bridge Summit web conference Thursday. Data protection officers (DPOs) are weighing ethics for AI usage across the business, while privacy engineers are mulling how they themselves might use large language models (LLMs) to automate compliance processes, they said.
States may take the lead on enforcement during the second Trump administration, privacy professionals said during a panel Wednesday at Privado’s Bridge Summit. Regulators, so far, seem most focused on protecting location, health and kids’ data, as well as overseeing data broker registrations, they added.
Regulators are looking harder at privacy and expanding what constitutes personal data, sensitive data and consumer health information, Grindr Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) Kelly Peterson said Wednesday during Privado’s Bridge Summit. However, Aaron Weller, HP privacy innovation leader, said it’s “not just about laws and regulations” for businesses seeking to prioritize privacy. “It’s also who are your customers and what are your customers’ expectations?”
Sen. Margo Juarez (D) wants to add “teeth” to Nebraska’s privacy law with a bill like California’s Delete Act that aims to make it easier for consumers to delete their data, she said in an interview Tuesday. However, at a livestreamed hearing of the bicameral legislature’s Commerce Committee Monday, counsel for Nebraska’s secretary of state raised concerns that the bill would be difficult to implement.
A Washington state House chair strongly supported letting individuals sue companies in comprehensive privacy legislation despite concerns that state and national industry groups raised about possibly making Washington the only state with that type of enforcement mechanism. At a livestreamed hearing Tuesday, the House Technology Committee heard support from consumer advocates and opposition from industry about HB-1671, a measure Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) introduced. Kloba hopes the bill can be scheduled for a committee vote next week, her office said after the hearing.