Florida Data Privacy Bill Passes State Senate
The Florida Senate passed online privacy bill SB-262 Friday, 38-0. The bill would allow consumers to opt out of online data collection and ad targeting, and prevent companies from selling their data (see 2304240045). Bill sponsor Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R) called the measure a “digital bill of rights” that's friendlier to small businesses than other state digital privacy laws, but critics such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association and Consumer Reports said the bill wouldn’t provide meaningful privacy protections.
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If tech companies “rang your doorbell” and asked to examine personal files “my guess is that everyone in this room would demand the opportunity to say no,” said Bradley on the Senate floor Friday, before the vote. “Right now Florida consumers don't have the ability to tell these companies: 'No, we do not want you to use all of that information.'”
Just before being approved, SB-262 was amended to delay the effective date from July 1 to Dec. 31. The bill was also amended to clarify language on online advertisements, Bradley said. Both amendments passed without objection. The Florida House next needs to reconcile SB-262 with its technology transparency bill, HB-1547.
The bill would require companies to inform consumers about and give them access to collected personal data, and allow them to opt out of personal data selling or processing for targeted advertising, Bradley told the Senate. It would apply to for-profit companies with over $1 billion in global gross revenue that derive 50% of that revenue from ad sales, or operate a consumer smart speaker with voice command component or operate an app store on a digital distribution platform that offers at least 250,000 different software applications, Bradley said. “It really just targets Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple,” said Matt Schwartz, a Consumer Reports policy analyst critical of the bill: “It is not a comprehensive bill. There are a ton of carve-outs.”
The bill would allow users to opt out of targeted advertising based on their name but wouldn’t affect targeted advertising based on cookies, a primary tool companies use to track user activity across multiple websites, Schwartz said. The bill also wouldn’t prevent companies such as Facebook from using user data to target ads for Facebook advertisers, because that’s not considered a sale of personal data, Schwartz said. In the end, the bill would affect “only a small sliver” of the consumer information used by online advertisers.
The bill wouldn’t affect contextual advertising, based on users’ search terms or location, Bradley said. “Will I no longer have -- popping up on my phone all of a sudden -- a pair of shoes I've been looking for?” asked Sen. Jason Pizzo (D). “Those ads will no longer pop up on your phone or computer if it’s a result of targeted advertising,” Bradley said. “If it is a result of you going online and searching for shoes and doesn't involve those implications, then you would still see them.” Bradley said targeted ads may be more relevant to consumers, “but at what cost?”
Florida’s bill is similar to other online privacy bills passed in Iowa and Tennessee in that it targets only the largest tech companies and doesn’t affect cookies, Schwartz said. Privacy bills passed in states such as Montana are much more robust and more likely to protect consumer data, he said. SB-262 is different enough from HB-1547 that reconciliation might be difficult, he said. "CCIA will continue to monitor the substance and progress of this legislation, including further options for engagement," said CCIA State Director Khara Boender in an email.