Legislation To Watch
What will 2021 bring?
Moving into 2021, we expect much of the discussion surrounding data privacy to come to a head.
At the Federal level, the Biden Administration has already signaled that data protection policies are one of the first issues the President-elect plans to tackle. While Congress remains divided, there is a strong belief that Federal data privacy legislation will have bipartisan support in both the Senate and House of Representatives in the 117th Congress.
In New York State, the environment is even more supercharged. Democrats not only control the Executive Chamber and the Legislature, they now maintain supermajorities in the Senate and the Assembly for the 2021 Budget Process and Legislative Session. The common theme amongst key government officials and thought leaders is that New York needs a comprehensive approach to data privacy. We expect recently introduced privacy legislation redefining and deeply changing the regulation of personally identifiable information to be a focus in New York State.
Federal Legislative Issues
- Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act—Senate Commerce Ranker Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
- SAFE DATA Act—Senate Commerce Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS)
- Data Protection Act—Sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- National Security and Data Privacy Protection Act—Sponsored by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO)
- Data Accountability and Transparency Act—Sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- National Biometric Information Privacy Act of 2020—Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt)
New York State Legislative
- Implementation of the New York State SHIELD Act with the Attorney General and the Department of Financial Services
- 7613/ S. 7724 AM Vanel/Sen. Sanders—NY Data Protection Act
- 8526/ S. 5642 AM Rosenthal/Sen. Thomas—New York Privacy Act
- 3818/ S. 2323 AM Rozic/Sen. Kavanagh—Online Consumer Protection Act
- 3739/ S. 224 AM Rozic/ Sen. Brad Hoylman—Regulation of personal information disclosed by businesses
- 10583/ S. 8448 AM Rosenthal/Sen. Thomas—COVID-19 Health Data Regulations