Today’s technology has far outpaced privacy law. Data brokers and technology companies are free to do almost anything they want with our personal information, including selling our cellphone location data on the open market. These practices endanger all of us, but especially vulnerable communities like immigrants, protesters, and people seeking and providing reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare.

The Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (H.4746) flips the script, giving all Massachusetts residents robust privacy rights in the digital age. Specifically, it bans the sale of our precise geolocation data and creates statutory limits on data collection and processing, ending the "anything goes" era of technology surveillance once and for all. The Location Shield Act we supported at Day on the Hill has been incorporated in this bill.

Take action now to urge your state Representative to support strong, enforceable privacy law. The Senate approved its version of the bill, S.2619 (originally S.2608) in September.

Please email or call your state Representative this week. Find your Representative HERE.

Here’s a template for your phone call or email:

Dear Representative __________:

I am thrilled to see strong data privacy legislation advancing in the House. As your constituent and a member of the League of Women Voters, I ask you to advocate vigorously for passage of the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (H.4746), recently redrafted in the Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity and sent to the House Ways & Means Committee.

This bill is a critical step to not only protect our privacy, but to keep people in Massachusetts safe from exploitation, harassment, or violence – including people seeking abortion and gender-affirming care, survivors of domestic abuse, veterans, and law enforcement. New reporting shows ICE is using precise cellphone location data to track our friends and neighbors. This is an outrageous privacy violation, and we are perfectly positioned in Massachusetts to stop it. 

Like the best privacy laws in other states, the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act would stop unnecessary and invasive online surveillance by creating meaningful limits on the collection and use of our personal data and prohibiting companies from selling our precise location information. A strong data privacy law must also include a robust private right of action, to ensure companies follow the law.

Please act to protect our privacy and personal safety by passing the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act as swiftly as possible. There is no time to waste.



Thank you for your leadership in the fight for data privacy.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

[Full street address]