Massachusetts online privacy could make the state a leader
Massachusetts online privacy could make the state a leader
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/04/business/massachusetts-online-privacy/
Publish Date: 2026-06-04 05:32:00
Source Domain: www.bostonglobe.com
But maybe it’s not apathy but a sense of helplessness. Short of total disconnection from the digital world, what can you do?
The Massachusetts legislature has a few ideas, and they’re pretty good ones. Their proposed data privacy law, passed unanimously by the Senate last fall and brought before the House in a new bill unveiled this week, is a Swiss Army knife of privacy protection tools, some of them with teeth.
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Here’s my favorite: a flat-out ban on the sale of geolocation data collected by our digital devices.
If I can monitor your location and movements, I can practically write the story of your life. Are you a heavy drinker? A churchgoer? A gambler? Are you into guns? Are you having plastic surgery, or an abortion? Let me follow you around electronically for a couple of weeks and I’ll know.
Our phones capture all this data, and often share it with the apps we use. Some apps obviously need to know where we are — Google Maps, for instance. But many others that don’t need it collect it anyway, and resell it to advertising companies that pepper us with location-specific ads.
With so many companies tracking us, there are countless opportunities for cyber criminals to steal this data. Last year, a hacker group accessed the files of data broker Gravy Analytics and stole the location records of millions.
But theft isn’t the only menace. In March, 404 Media reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been purchasing location data to track the movements of people suspected of being in the US illegally. So much for needing a subpoena or warrant to spy on people. Instead, Uncle Sam can just write a check.
The data privacy bill would put a stop to this, at least in Massachusetts. Companies could collect our location data for their own uses, but would no longer be allowed to sell it. And the law would apply not only to Massachusetts…
