Massachusetts passes new consumer data privacy legislation

Lawmakers in Massachusetts have voted to pass privacy protections that grant the state’s residents new rights over accessing and deleting their data held by big tech giants—defined here as large technology companies. The Massachusetts House passed the state’s Consumer Data Privacy Act in a 146-0 vote on Thursday. This action comes months after all 40 of the state’s Senate lawmakers voted in favor of advancing its own bill in September. The bills will now be combined in the Senate and sent to the state governor’s office, where the legislation is expected to be signed into law, though it is not immediately clear when that will happen.

If passed into law, the Consumer Data Privacy Act will apply to companies that handle or process the personal data of more than 100,000 consumers. This threshold means the regulations will affect startups as well as Silicon Valley technology companies. The law would block the sharing or sale of sensitive information without a user’s explicit consent. This restricted sensitive information includes biometrics—such as health data, genetic information, and fingerprints—as well as precise geolocation data and other markers regarding religion, immigration status, and sexual orientation.

The restriction on location data targets a business model where data brokers—defined as entities that collect and sell user data—repackage and sell location information. While the previous federal Biden administration attempted to ban the sale of sensitive data at the federal level, the current Trump government has since scrapped those plans, leaving individual states to regulate the practice. The Massachusetts bill has received praise from digital rights groups. Evan Greer, director of the Fight for the Future advocacy group, said the Massachusetts bill “took a major step toward cracking down on Big Tech’s surveillance abuses.” Meanwhile, the ACLU praised the bill as positioning the state as a leader in protecting personal privacy and curbing digital surveillance.

Why it matters

The bill makes Massachusetts the latest U.S. state to push for stronger consumer privacy rights, filling a void left by the lack of a nationwide privacy law in the United States.