Data privacy bill clears House with more small business restrictions

Fiona McFarland. Image via Colin Hackley.

House lawmakers passed a data privacy bill, but added changes from the Senate version that leave its fate uncertain.

Critics of the bill (SB 262) say regulations on targeted ads impose too many restrictions on small businesses.

But Rep. Fiona McFarland, a Sarasota Republican who has worked on the issue for three years, believes the legislation as passed should become law. In a world with constant interaction with streaming content, she said it’s important Florida watch out for consumers.

“We’ve been lulled into complacency by the convenience of all these products and will hand over more and more about ourselves,” McFarland said. “Maybe we’ve forgotten that they’re watching us too.”

The bill cleared the House on a 106-10 bipartisan vote. But that vote came after a 15-page amendment was tacked onto the legislation Tuesday.

Many of the changes included restrictions against tracking of consumer information without an opt-in. The House bill allows the state Department of Legal Affairs to bring action against companies in violation.

The 10 House members opposing the bill hailed from both sides of the aisle. Many see the provisions as a threat to small businesses in Florida.

Rep. Allison Tant, a Tallahassee Democrat, said she would have supported a version passed by the Senate.

“Among the biggest concerns that I have are the impacts to small businesses,” she said. “Any small business or businesses depend on online advertising, the ability to target ads to customers online, to an audience that wants to hear from them about the products and services they sell.”

Small business groups have raised similar concerns for years.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously but without the added restrictions. The upper chamber for three years has resisted many of the provisions now contained in the House-passed version. Because of the amendments, the legislation must return to the upper chamber.

The Senate can either pass the legislation as amended or strip the language out and send it back.

McFarland hopes the Senate adopts the legislation as passed in the House. She said it’s protection of the next generation — one online from infancy — that has been her priority.

“I have a 3-year-old that many of you know and he points to my phone at the YouTube icon and says ‘Mommy, that’s my favorite button,’” she said in a closing argument. “The kid is 3. He doesn’t have a favorite food. He doesn’t have a favorite color. He doesn’t have a favorite pair of shoes. But he has a favorite icon because he knows when we fire up YouTube. He gets endless rabbit holes of 90-second videos about trucks that deliver a straight dopamine shot to his tiny little brain.

“Please help me protect the tiny little brains of my children and harmful algorithms that would lead them towards mental instability or self-doubt or destructive behaviors and help us save all of the tiny minds of Floridians by supporting this bill.”