Trenton, New Jersey – Yesterday, the New Jersey Legislature advanced a new comprehensive privacy bill. If the bill is signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy, New Jersey would become the 13th state, after California, Utah, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Montana, Oregon, Texas, and Delaware to extend baseline privacy rights to consumers, including the right to access, delete, and stop certain disclosures of their personal information. The bill would become operative on January 8, 2025.
The New Jersey privacy bill 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 than most states.
“This bill has improved substantially as it has moved through the legislative process,” said Matt Schwartz, policy analyst at Consumer Reports. “The bill now includes baseline consumer privacy protections, along with provisions, like the universal opt-out, that will make this bill far more usable for consumers than what was previously being considered. At the same time, we see room for improvement, particularly relating to the bill’s data minimization and enforcement provisions. We’ll continue to advocate for the strongest possible privacy protections for New Jersey consumers.”