Jacob Ogles
Despite bipartisan support in the House, data privacy legislation has proven elusive the last couple years. When no updated privacy bill made it in the hopper before the start of the 2023 Legislative Session, it seemed to imply that the push to limit private companies trading on personal information had suffered a system crash.
Then, the House Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee advanced a new bill. Rep. Fiona McFarland once again will carry the bill (HB 1547) and feels optimistic Florida will change the settings on who controls consumers’ private data.
The Sarasota Republican feels confident about the bill this year. In part, that’s because compliance issues that outraged small business advocates the past two years have been loosened considerably.
“The biggest change to the bill this year, and this was one of the big sticking points from last year, is that we raised the threshold for which businesses this legislation applies to,” McFarland said.
“Companies must make over $1 billion in annual revenue, and satisfy one or two positions. They must make 50% of their money off of ad sales, or have a smart in-home speaker device, like a virtual assistant.”
For those businesses gathering data using speaker devices in consumers’ homes, there is a requirement that individuals opt in to any collection of information.
The new legislation also disposes of a private right to action. Rather than opening the legal system up to anyone who wants to sue a business they suspect violates their privacy, the new bill would leave enforcement to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
“A complaint would go to the Attorney General and then she can grant a 45-day cure period if she thinks that is appropriate. Beyond that, if she chooses, she could do a Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices action.”
A similar bill has advanced in the Senate as well. Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican, is ushering a similar bill (SB 262) through the process. The legislation recently cleared the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee on a unanimous vote.
“It gives the Florida consumer the right to know what type of information the company collects, sells or shares about them,” Bradley said in committee. “It gives the consumer the right to delete or correct the information. It gives the consumer the right to opt out of their information being sold or shared.”
But McFarland said it’s the protections for children she thinks ultimately will prove the most valuable.
“Those companies where children interact online, we will institute something experts know as privacy by design,” McFarland said.
“For a website or app or something children under age 18 regularly interact with, there is no opt in or opt out. They must just offer the most private account setting possible. To go one step above that, we require targeting and profiling standards that do not cause substantial risk of harm to a child, which we define as addictive behavior, mental health, sexual abuse, sexual enticement, things like that.”
She knows many parents who don’t want to post baby pictures on Facebook or Instagram for fear companies will start a consumer profile on children before they learn to walk, much less make their own purchases.
“The truth is we don’t know what happens to images out there. There is more and more discomfort out there. I think sentiment has shifted, and people want more transparency on their data.”
