A Florida Senate panel has jettisoned a provision in a data privacy bill that would have allowed consumers to sue companies for mishandling their personal information, but the change was not enough for business groups to end their opposition to the legislation.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce welcomed amendments the Senate Rules Committee made to SB 1734, authored by Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island), which would give consumers more authority to protect personal data held by businesses. Lawmakers also narrowed the number of firms the bill would apply to.
“We still have concerns that without an exclusive remedy, the bill will still drive class-action litigation like what is being seen in California,” Carolyn Johnson, the chamber’s senior director of business, economic development and innovation policy, said in an email to the Florida Record. “Furthermore, the Florida Chamber remains concerned about the cost of compliance.”
But the chamber has pledged to remain engaged with state lawmakers as data privacy bills advance in both the House and Senate, according to Johnson.
“We share the goal of protecting consumers and look forward to continuing to work with the Senate and the House to improve the bill and ensure that we are going after only the truly bad actors that are selling massive amounts of consumer data without the consumer’s knowledge,” she said.
Under an amendment to SB 1734 approved on April 6, the bill would apply only to businesses that buy, sell or share at least 100,000 pieces of consumer data annually. That’s up from 50,000 in an earlier version of the legislation.
The changes to SB 1734 were approved prior to similar legislation in the House, HB 969 by Rep. Fiona McFarland (R-Sarasota), being approved by the House Commerce Committee, setting up a floor vote. But in the House version, private lawsuits would still be allowed, even as lawmakers pushed back the effective date of the bill to July 2022 and reduced the number of businesses that would be affected.
The privacy bills generally allow Florida consumers to learn what information businesses have collected from them and to block the sale of such information. In addition, consumers would be allowed to delete and correct information held by businesses.
The legislation would also give the Florida Department of Legal Affairs the authority to file charges against businesses over violations related to data security breaches and to seek civil penalties.