New Jersey legislators passed a comprehensive data privacy bill and proposed telephone line abandonment rules during floor sessions Monday. The Assembly voted 47-27 to pass S-332 after substituting into the bill language from A-1971. The Senate voted 34-1 for A-1100, which would require removing phone and cable lines that don’t terminate at both ends to equipment or to a customer premise, aren't in a safe condition or haven’t been operated for at least 24 consecutive months. The state privacy bill will “protect for the first time in New Jersey history our citizens’ and our children’s data, including personally identifiable information and sensitive data, and join the dozen-plus states that have beaten us to it,” said Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Raj Mukherji (D), who sponsored A-1971. “With no comprehensive federal framework to address this, unlike in Europe, it’s fallen to the states to fill the gaps and protect our citizens’ data.” Mukherji highlighted the bill’s inclusion of a universal opt-out mechanism, which would support using a browser plugin or setting to opt out of many sites. The Assembly adopted amendments to the privacy bill at a Dec. 21 floor session. Changes include clarifying that a controller isn’t required to authenticate opt-out requests and that the consumer’s option to opt out applies to data selling or targeted ads, according to a floor statement. Also, the amended bill extended the deadline for controllers to comply to six months from four. In addition, lawmakers added an exemption for data subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Assembly Judiciary Committee passed A-1971 in December (see 2312180067), many months after the Senate approved S-332 last February (see 2302030065). Consumer Reports believes "the bill improved substantially as it has moved through the legislative process," said CR Policy Analyst Matt Schwartz. "The bill now includes baseline consumer privacy protections" and a universal opt-out mechanism that will make it "far more usable for consumers than what was previously being considered," he said. However, "we see room for improvement, particularly relating to the bill's data minimization and enforcement provisions." The Assembly passed the line abandonment bill last March (see 2303010017). The New Hampshire House last week completed a comprehensive privacy bill (SB-255). It passed the state's Senate last March (see 2303170035). The House Judiciary Committee amended and advanced the bill in November (see 2311080062).
An Ohio law requiring age verification to access social media runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution, NetChoice said Friday. The tech industry group asked the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio to block the 2023 law from taking effect Jan. 15. Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R) lambasted the lawsuit as “cowardly but not unexpected.” Passed as part of Ohio's 2024-25 budget, the state law requires verifiable parental consent before kids under 16 can access social media (see 2307050064). Husted championed the measure (see [Ref:2303090051). Requiring Ohioans to submit sensitive personal data to age-verification services before they can share and receive information online violates the First Amendment, NetChoice argued. Also, the state law is too vague because it imposes a parental consent requirement for the internet broadly, the group said. And NetChoice complained about unclear definitions and descriptions in the law. “The law simply requires parental consent before children under the age of 16 sign up on social media and other online platforms,” Husted responded in a statement Friday. “In filing this lawsuit, these companies are determined to go around parents to expose children to harmful content and addict them to their platforms.” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) didn’t comment by our deadline.
“A fluke event outside of Lumen's control” resulted in a nearly statewide 911 outage in Nebraska four months ago, the telecom company’s attorney Katherine McNamara said during a Nebraska Public Service Commission hearing Thursday. During the livestreamed session, Lumen and 911 officials said the outage resulted from contractors' accidental fiber cuts: The first occurred in Minneapolis Aug. 30 and the second in Omaha Aug. 31. The 911 outage lasted from the evening of Aug. 31 until early morning the next day (see 2309010021).