Ind. Privacy Bill Goes to Governor; Consumer Reports Seeks Veto

Indiana’s privacy bill passed the legislature. The Senate voted 47-0 Thursday to concur with changes by the House, which passed SB-5 earlier that week (see 2304120015). With a signature by Gov. Eric Holcomb (R), Indiana could become the seventh state with a comprehensive privacy bill, following Iowa last month. Or it might be Tennessee, where a bill passed the House last week (see 2304110031). The Tennessee Senate was scheduled to take up SB-73 Thursday but didn’t vote and now will consider it Monday. Consumer Reports seeks Holcomb's veto because it says the Indiana bill lacks teeth, doesn't support a global opt-out mechanism and contains weak definitions of sale and targeted advertising. “Bad privacy bills are the trend this year,” CR policy analyst Matt Schwartz said Friday. “This bill contains too many provisions that conform to the wishes of the biggest privacy violators.” Indiana’s bill is most like Virginia’s privacy law, Husch Blackwell privacy attorney David Stauss blogged Thursday. It’s “more business-friendly than the Colorado and Connecticut laws but more consumer-friendly than the Utah and Iowa laws,” he said. The Iowa and Indiana measures “are not the most restrictive of the bunch,” blogged Parker Poe lawyers Friday. “However, the growing number of nuances among state privacy laws can make compliance burdensome.”