Consumer Reports, Common Sense Media, Consumer Federation of America, and Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) write in respectful opposition to HB 987. The bill seeks to provide to Louisiana consumers the right to know the information companies have collected about them, the right to delete that information, and the right to stop the disclosure of certain information to third parties. However, in its current form it would do little to protect Louisiana consumers’ personal information, or to rein in major tech companies like Google and Facebook. It offers even fewer protections than Virginia’s industry-supported measure, lacking correction rights, opt-in protections for sensitive data, and an opt out of processing for the purposes of profiling. The bill needs to be substantially improved before it is enacted; otherwise, it would risk locking in industry-friendly provisions that avoid actual reform.
For the full letter, please see the attached PDF.