The Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (H.4746) remains in the House Ways & Means Committee. The times demand passage of this vital bill to protect our privacy. Take action now to urge your State Representative to support a strong, enforceable privacy law, even if you already asked at the end of last year. The Senate approved its version of the bill, S.2619 (originally S.2608) in September.

Today, 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, not to mention people in sensitive jobs such as reporters, judges, legislators and election workers.

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. Call or email this week when LWVMA and other organizations are making a major push for this bill.

Call/Email Template:

Dear Representative __________:

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, and those in sensitive positions, including legislators.

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 would prohibit 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. People across the political spectrum in Massachusetts support strong data privacy laws. Pew found 78% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans support lawmakers taking action to protect online privacy, and 92% of Massachusetts voters support banning the sale of location data. There is no more time to waste.

Please take leadership in the fight for data privacy.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

[Full street address]