Trenton, New Jersey – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a comprehensive privacy bill (S. 332/A.B. 1971) into law that will extend baseline privacy rights to consumers, including the right to access, delete, and stop certain disclosures of their personal information. New Jersey becomes the 13th state to pass a privacy bill into law, after California, Utah, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Montana, Oregon, Texas, and Delaware. The bill becomes operative on January 8, 2025.
The New Jersey privacy law has several provisions that make it stronger than most other state laws:
- It requires companies to honor browser privacy signals, such as the Global Privacy Control, so that consumers can opt out of data sales and targeted advertising at all companies in a single step;
- It provides for administrative rulemaking; and
- The scope of covered data is broader.
“We congratulate Governor Murphy for signing this bill into law, which provides several important privacy protections for New Jersey residents,” said Matt Schwartz, policy analyst at Consumer Reports. “Requiring businesses to honor universal opt out signals is crucial to this new law’s usability, as this provision will allow consumers to take some control over their personal data back. At the same time, we see room for improvement and will continue to encourage New Jersey lawmakers to protect consumers’ privacy by default.”
Contact: cyrus.rassool@consumer.org