Sacramento, California — The California Senate Appropriations Committee made A.B. 322, the California Location Privacy Act, into a two-year bill, effectively killing the legislation for the session. A.B. 322, introduced by Assemblymember Chris Ward, would have amended the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to ban the sale of consumers’ precise geolocation information. Consumer Reports was an official co-sponsor of the legislation. Per Senate Appropriations Committee procedure, the action to hold the bill came without debate and was not accompanied by an official statement.
“It’s disappointing to see A.B. 322 die so close to the finish-line,” said Matt Schwartz, policy analyst at CR. “This bill would have protected consumers’ location information from being sold to data brokers behind their backs, created more rigorous standards for how this data could be used, and restricted how long it could be retained.”
However, in our conversations with legislators, there was widespread support for the basic concept of banning the sale of location data. Consumers, too, strongly support strong restrictions on the sale of sensitive data, such as their precise geolocation. In any case, we look forward to continuing to work with California policymakers to advance the CR-supported privacy bills (such as A.B. 566) that are still alive this session. We plan to continue to advocate for stronger privacy standards in the state in the next legislative session.”
CR has long been an advocate for the data rights of consumers. The nonprofit, independent organization has worked to strengthen the California Consumer Privacy Act and was a strong supporter of the state’s Delete Act.
Contact: Cyrus Rassool, cyrus.rassool@consumer.org