James Maroney

Senator James Maroney Applauds House Passage Of Data Privacy Bill

State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford), Chair of the General Law Committee, released the following statement after the House passed Senate Bill 6, An Act Concerning Personal Data Privacy And Online Monitoring:

“I want to applaud my co-chair, Representative D’Agostino, for shepherding the data privacy bill through the house, as well as Representative Arconti for his assistance with crafting the legislation and Senator Duff for his continued advocacy for strong Data Privacy legislation,” said Sen. Maroney. “I also want to thank the Attorney General’s Data Privacy Unit, specifically Michele Lucan, the head of the data privacy unit, for their hard work and dedication over the past two years. They worked diligently with us to craft legislation that will protect Connecticut citizen’s rights. I am excited that today we took the first steps toward giving Connecticut residents control over their data privacy, which is increasingly important in our connected world.”

“I would like to thank my colleagues in the House for taking this bill another step forward in protecting the rights of residents throughout Connecticut,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff. “This piece of legislation will work to strengthen online privacy for consumers. This bill will put Connecticut in an elite spot as one of the first states to protect people’s personal data.”

This bill establishes a framework for controlling and processing personal data, and establishes responsibilities and privacy protection standards for data controllers and processors. It also grants consumers the right to access, correct, delete and obtain a copy of personal data, and opt out of the processing of personal data for the purposes.

In February 2021, Sen. Maroney introduced Senate Bill 893, “An Act Concerning Consumer Privacy,” which would have created a consumer data bill of rights and required big-tech companies to clearly state what data is being collected, how it’s being used, and why – and consumers would have the right to see that data, fix any errors in it, or delete it all.
Under this data privacy bill, companies will be required to clearly cite a privacy policy telling consumers what data is being collected, how it is being used, and why. This way, consumers are aware and have the right of knowing what information is being collected from them, the ability to see and fix any false data that is collected from them, and the right to have any collected data be deleted.

The bill will also prohibit companies from discriminating against those who choose to exercise these rights. This bill will provide protection over user information, thus preventing companies from abusing their data. It will require companies to lessen the amount of data they collect and only use it for the purposes they are collected it for; therefore having less data breaches and identity theft.

Currently, children’s online privacy protection imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age. This data privacy bill also raises the children’s online privacy protection rule to children under 16 years of age. It also matches California’s laws for the strongest protections for children online.

The legislation will ensure transparency within companies and consumers, therefore guaranteeing that consumers know just how much of their information is being collected and are given the right to control what is done with that data.