Oklahoma Rep. Josh West (R) said he won't bring his comprehensive privacy bill to the floor this year, despite the House Government Modernization and Technology Subcommittee clearing it at a Wednesday meeting. The panel also cleared an age-verification bill.
The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would restrict children’s social media use and targeted ads, despite concerns about data privacy and free speech (see 2502040047).
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.
The Senate Commerce Committee expects to pass legislation banning social media use for children younger than 13 during Wednesday’s markup, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and committee members told us Tuesday.
NetChoice challenged the Maryland Age-Appropriate Design Code (MAADC) Act that introduced new compliance requirements for companies reasonably assumed to be accessible to minors. The tech industry group filed a lawsuit Monday against Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown (D), alleging that the law restricts free speech and invades privacy through age-verification requirements.
The age-verification technology at issue in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case raises major privacy concerns, said Jennifer Huddleston, senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute. Huddleston discussed with Free State Foundation adjunct senior fellow Mike O'Rielly the justices' argument earlier this month on a Texas age-verification law (see 2501130012 and 2501150073).
NetChoice fired back at the Mississippi Attorney General Friday for attempting to reverse a preliminary injunction on a children’s online safety law, arguing that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in NetChoice v. Paxton has no bearing on an ongoing case in the state. AG Lynn Fitch (R) on Wednesday filed a letter to the 5th U.S. Circuit urging that it rule against an injunction, as it did in the Paxton case.
The Wyoming Senate received a bill requiring age verification Friday after the House approved it a day earlier.
A pair of proposed updates to Virginia’s comprehensive privacy law cleared the Senate General Laws Committee on Wednesday.
Donald Trump becoming president again probably fueled momentum for a New York state health privacy bill, a business privacy lawyer and an American Civil Liberties Union official said in recent interviews. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) so far has kept her cards close to the vest concerning whether she will sign a health data privacy bill that sailed through the state's legislature last week (see 2501220073 and 2501210068). Meanwhile, privacy attorneys are sounding the alarm about possible business compliance problems.