On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis was joined by state House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, and state Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, to highlight proposed legislation that would increase data privacy and security and uphold the rights of Floridians over major technology companies.
The announcement is the latest effort from DeSantis to “safeguard Floridians against the often-unchecked power of ‘Big Tech,’ and follows the proposal from the governor and legislative leaders earlier this month to increase technology transparency in Florida.”
“For far too long, Big Tech companies have abdicated their responsibility of safeguarding and securing the data of Americans and Floridians; in fact, rather than protecting our data, they are profiting from it,” said DeSantis.“This one-way street – where Big Tech has all the power and consumers have little to none – stops now. With the proposals announced today, we will finally check these companies’ unfettered ability to profit off our data and ensure the protection of Floridians’ personal and private information.”
“Today’s introduction of our Consumer Data Privacy legislation is another step in combating mass public distrust left in the wake of Big Tech companies’ destruction,” said Sprowls. “They don’t care about your personal information; they don’t care who gets ahold of your sensitive data. In the state of Florida, we care. It’s time to stop bad actors and help restore consumers’ trust in companies that hold the keys to their personal information.”
“Today, when we interact with websites, apps, and services online, we leave behind troves of personal information about ourselves,” said McFarland who is sponsoring the bill in the House. “While we celebrate the spirit of American ingenuity and innovation, we must balance this with protections for our private information.”
The legislation would do the following:
- Require businesses to publish a privacy policy for personal information.
- Give consumers the right to know what information a business has collected about them.
- Allow consumers to request to delete or correct certain personal information.
- Require businesses to allow consumers to “opt-out” of the sale of personal information to third parties.
- Prohibit discrimination for opting out.
- Limit a business’ use and retention of personal information.
- Allow a limited private Cause of Action (COA).
- Give the Attorney General power to enforce.
- Limit the new consumer data privacy requirements to larger businesses.
- Additionally, the legislation would strengthen current law that does not adequately address the practices of the technology companies of today. The legislation would expand the Florida Information Protection Act to include biometric data, such as fingerprints, voice recordings, retina scans and more. The high sensitivity of biometric data warrants and deserves additional protection and security.
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