Editorial: Mass. seeks to give citizens more control of their private data
Editorial: Mass. seeks to give citizens more control of their private data
Publish Date: 2026-06-14 02:20:00
Source Domain: www.sentinelandenterprise.com
It should be obvious to anyone dealing with daily spam calls on cellphones and landlines that technology has far outpaced our privacy protections.
Data brokers and Big Tech conglomerates can seemingly do anything they want with our personal information, including selling our cellphone location data to the highest bidder.
That’s why we’re encouraged to see that Massachusetts has taken steps to clamp down on the exploitation of our personal information.
The latest bid to restore our privacy protections occurred June 4, when the House unanimously passed a major data privacy bill that would give consumers new rights and impose restrictions on companies’ use of personal information.
Representatives voted 146-0 in favor of the bill, which would require affirmative consent before sensitive information can be sold or shared, ban the sale of precise geolocation data, create special protections for minors, and authorize enforcement by the attorney general and, in some cases, private individuals.
The bill must now be reconciled with the Senate version, which passed by a 40-0 vote in September. Among its important reforms, it also banned the sale of our sensitive data, including precise geolocation information.
According to details released by the Massachusetts Legislature, the House bill requires that personal data collection be proportionate to providing requested services, and data must be protected and deleted when no longer necessary or required by law.
Under the bill, data subject rights would extend to all residents in Massachusetts. These rights include the ability to access their personal information, to correct inaccurate information, to opt out of certain processes such as targeted advertising, to transport personal data, and to delete certain information.
The legislation also specifies that sensitive data cannot be sold or shared without a user’s affirmative consent. Companies cannot sell sensitive data without additional unambiguous, affirmative…
