{"id":242241,"date":"2026-05-09T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-verifying-age-should-be-lawmakers-focus\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:20:10","slug":"data-privacy-not-verifying-age-should-be-lawmakers-focus-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-verifying-age-should-be-lawmakers-focus-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Data privacy, not verifying age, should be lawmakers&#8217; focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metrowestdailynews.com\/story\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-age-verification-should-be-ma-lawmakers-focus-letter-to-the-editor\/89944547007\/\">Data privacy, not verifying age, should be lawmakers&#8217; focus<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metrowestdailynews.com\/story\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-age-verification-should-be-ma-lawmakers-focus-letter-to-the-editor\/89944547007\/\">https:\/\/www.metrowestdailynews.com\/story\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-age-verification-should-be-ma-lawmakers-focus-letter-to-the-editor\/89944547007\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-09 04:45:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.metrowestdailynews.com\">www.metrowestdailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>May 9, 2026, 4:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">To the Editor:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">I am writing to urgently oppose Massachusetts House Bill 5366. Although it\u2019s being touted as protection for kids online, MA House Bill 5366 would require everyone, not just kids, to upload a government ID or submit to a facial recognition scan to create a social media account or post online, even on educational sites like Wikipedia. It would be one of the most invasive online ID check mandates in the country, and it&#8217;s both misguided and a violation of online privacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Age checks threaten our right to free speech online; similar \u201cage verification\u201d laws have been struck down as unconstitutional in other states. You should be able to browse the internet, post on social media, communicate with your friends, read news and search for vital information about all kinds of topics including politics and health \u2014 all without tying every keystroke to your identity and putting your sensitive data in the hands of Big Tech where you have no control over your data and how it could be used.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Instead of effectively banning kids from the internet and requiring age and ID verification for everyone who uses it, Massachusetts lawmakers should focus their attention on laws that will actually protect kids and everyone else who goes online, such as comprehensive data privacy legislation. For example, the Massachusetts Senate has already passed the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (MCDPA). That bill would protect us all from having our sensitive personal information and location data sold to data brokers, who could then sell it to anyone. Massachusetts House should put their energies into passing the MCDPA into law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Online ID checks do more harm than good. Massachusetts should not pass any laws that abridge free expression and increase online surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Anne Rookey<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Framingham<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metrowestdailynews.com\/story\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-age-verification-should-be-ma-lawmakers-focus-letter-to-the-editor\/89944547007\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data privacy, not verifying age, should be lawmakers&#8217; focus https:\/\/www.metrowestdailynews.com\/story\/opinion\/letters\/2026\/05\/09\/data-privacy-not-age-verification-should-be-ma-lawmakers-focus-letter-to-the-editor\/89944547007\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-09 04:45:00 Source&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.metrowestdailynews.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2024\/10\/23\/NMWD\/75807713007-mailjpg.jpg?crop=3999,2251,x0,y374&width=3200&height=1802&format=pjpg&auto=webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242245,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242241\/revisions\/242245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}