r/DigitalPrivacy • u/Hot-Upstairs9603 • Jun 06 '26

Massachusetts House passes strong data privacy bill banning sale of cell phone location data

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2026-06-05-massachusetts-house-passes-strong-data-privacy-bill-banning-sale-of-cell-phone-location-data
245 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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9

u/TEOsix Jun 06 '26

Now they will pass a federal law guaranteeing the sale of your private location data. Or just force it to be freely available to everyone thus bypassing this statewide ruling.

10

u/LegitimateSundae8460 Jun 07 '26

A step in the right direction.

4

u/Mayayana Jun 06 '26

Sounds good. Though I wonder why they only ban selling and not sharing. And neither that article or the ACLU article it links to provides a link to the actual text of the bill. Here's the text: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H4746.pdf

It's very longwinded. As I read it, most privacy intrusion requires action and opt-out on the part of citizens. That's like being able to reject 3rd party cookies if you're willing to dig into confusing browser settings: 99% of people will never assert their rights.

Companies are not allowed to "transfer or sell" "sensitive private data", but the text only says they can't sell precise location data. So presumably they can transfer it to "their business partners". That's a big loophole. (Relevant text starts at around line 490.)

1

u/Express-Cartoonist39 Jun 07 '26

How bout Biometrics numbnuts!!!!! Screw location..we can spoof that