EFF Urges Vermont to Strengthen Privacy Laws
Vermont should build on this year’s privacy law for data brokers, Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz blogged Thursday. It enacted a bill in May to mandate security standards for data brokers and require them to report annually…
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to the Vermont secretary of state (see 1805140060). Attorney General T.J. Donovan (D) last week hosted a hearing on next steps for Vermont on privacy (see 1809250035). Schwartz urged Vermont legislators to expand the law, which applies to third-party data brokers, to also cover first parties with a direct relationship with consumers. “For example, the Vermont law does not cover a social media platform like Facebook, or a retailer like Walmart, when those companies gather information about how consumers interact with their own websites,” he said. Lawmakers should “impose on data brokers a fiduciary duty towards the consumers whose data they harvest and monetize,” create a government office to assist data breach victims and ensure those people can also seek compensation for nonfinancial injuries, he said.