Consumer Reports opposes South Carolina H. 3401, recently introduced consumer privacy legislation. The bill provides South Carolina consumers the right to know the information companies have collected about them, the right to access, correct, and delete that information, as well as the right to stop the disclosure of certain information to third parties. However, due to its applicability to only the very largest tech companies and other significant loopholes, it would leave South Carolina consumers’ personal information unprotected in a wide variety of contexts.
We offer several suggestions to strengthen the bill to provide the level of protection that South Carolina consumers deserve:
- Widen the applicability threshold;
- Include meaningful data minimization provisions, or at least require companies to honor browser privacy signals as opt outs;
- Remove the pseudonymous data exception;
- Expand opt-out rights to better cover the targeted advertising and sharing that consumers want to avoid;
- Remove authentication requirements for opt-outs;
- Strengthen the non-discrimination provisions;
- Eliminate entity-level carveouts; and
- Strengthen enforcement.
To read more, please see the attached PDF.