Maine Senate Passes Broad Privacy Bill
Maine’s Senate on Thursday passed a privacy bill that would impose sweeping restrictions on companies’ ability to collect data and target ads, and would completely ban the sale of sensitive data, including precise location information.
Ad industry groups oppose the bill (LD 1822), arguing to lawmakers that it’s more stringent than other state privacy laws.
“If enacted, LD 1822 would make the state’s approach to privacy an outlier in ways that would harm consumers and businesses of all sizes,” the Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies, American Advertising Federation and Digital Advertising Alliance said in a letter sent to Maine Senate members last month.
But consumer advocates champion the proposed law, arguing it will safeguard people’s privacy better than state statutes that only require businesses to obtain consumers’ consent before selling sensitive data about them.
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