Florida’s privacy bill passed the legislature and will go to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). In Thursday floor sessions, the Senate voted 40-0 for an amended SB-262 and the House voted 110-2 Thursday to agree with the Senate’s edits. The quick back and forth on the privacy bill occurred after House extensively amended the bill earlier this week (see 2305030040). The House agreed to the Senate’s edit to the House’s edit on the definition of targeted advertising, which was controversial throughout the legislative process. The amended bill would allow consumers to opt out from companies “displaying to a consumer an advertisement selected based on personal data obtained from that consumer’s activities over time across affiliated or unaffiliated websites and online applications used to predict the consumer’s preferences or interests.” The House also agreed to Senate tweaks to House requirements on children’s protections and money recovered by the attorney general.
The Colorado legislature passed 988 and social media bills last week. The House voted 50-13 Thursday to repass the mental health bill (HB-1236) after voting 51-12 to concur with Senate amendments. It would include continuous appropriations to the mental health crisis hotline (see 2305030067). Also that day, the Senate voted 26-9 for HB-1306. The bill, previously passed by the House, would allow elected officials to bar an individual from using the official’s private social media account for “any reason,” including bullying, harassment or intimidation. Thursday in Hawaii, legislators passed and sent to the governor HB-933. It would appropriate an $150,000 for the next two fiscal years for a program to provide free telecom access “to certain information for persons with a print disability.”
Texas may cut its state USF surcharge in half this summer. The Texas Public Utility Commission plans to consider a draft order at its May 11 meeting to reduce the revenue-based fee to 12% from 24%, effective July 1, said a PUC memo Thursday in docket 50796. In July, the PUC hiked the rate to 24% from 3.3% after a state court said Texas commissioners violated the state’s constitution and utility and administrative procedure laws by choosing in June 2020 not to fully fund TUSF by doubling the surcharge to 6.4% (see 2207140060). The PUC expects to complete “the arrearage and interest payments to eligible telecommunications providers by July 2023 and subsequently proposes reducing the TUSF assessment rate by half,” said the memo. The Texas House passed a constitutional amendment last week that would set up a broadband fund that could reduce pressure on state USF (see 2304270056).
Kansas and South Dakota will spend millions on broadband expansion, governors said Wednesday. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) announced the $30 million Lasting Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (LINC) program, which will fund networks providing speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, internet exchange point facilities and middle-mile infrastructure. South Dakota awarded $32.5 million in broadband grants, through the ConnectSD program, to 13 projects by nine applicants, said Gov. Kristi Noem (R). The governor expects the winning projects to connect 3,137 homes, farms and businesses. Grant winners included Venture Vision ($8.7 million), Golden West Telecommunications Cooperative ($5.2 million) and Alliance Communications Cooperative ($5.1 million).
The California Privacy Protection Agency board plans to discuss “future regulations” at a virtual meeting May 15 at 9 a.m. PDT, it said Thursday. The agency released an agenda.
A California Assembly panel supported extending the statute of limitations for claims brought by the state attorney general under the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The Appropriations Committee voted 12-4 Wednesday to clear AB-1546 to extend it to five years from one. CCPA’s sequel, the California Privacy Rights Act, already allows for five years. Appropriations was the third committee to approve the bill and it can now go to the floor.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) will focus on “willful noncompliance” with the state’s privacy law after it takes effect July 1, he said Thursday at a Sedona Conference event in Denver. “For those that try to comply, but make mistakes, our focus will be on enabling compliance.” Weiser expects to “revisit and revise aspects” of the law, he said. “Given the novelty of some of the rules, we know that we are going to learn a fair amount as they go into effect.” Universal opt-out mechanisms are new, he said. “To drive this effort forward, we are taking on the responsibility of maintaining a list of recognized mechanisms.” Also, the AG is “interested to see how our requirements on privacy notices and purpose specification play out in practice and give consumers more insight into how data is used,” he said. ”Finally, we are going to keep a close eye on so-called ‘dark patterns,’ with rules now in place to guide when such patterns are in play.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed telemarketing and 988 funding bills Wednesday. Moore signed the Stop the Spam Calls Act (HB-37/SB-90), modeled on Florida and Oklahoma telemarketing laws that go beyond the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The 988 bill (SB-3/HB-271) requires $12 million for the mental health hotline in the FY 2025 budget.
Pornhub restricted website access to everyone in Utah in response to a state law (SB-287) that took effect Wednesday. The Utah law requires porn websites to verify users’ ages before letting them access content. Requiring ID-based age verification before accessing an adult website puts users’ privacy at risk, and requiring it “without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply,” said adult actress Cherie DeVille in a video shown to Utahns who try to access Pornhub. “As we’ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place.” Identifying users by device is the best way to protect children, she said. A separate Utah law (SB-152) requiring age verification for social media platforms (see 2303240035) also took effect Wednesday. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed the age-verification bills in March. "Companies should be held responsible for knowingly distributing pornography to minors," said Cox. "The very least we can do as a society is to ask companies to verify the age of those viewing the pornography they produce and distribute. This unanimous, bipartisan legislation provides multiple ways to satisfy that requirement. However, I fully support PornHub’s decision to remove their content in Utah.”
The Colorado Senate voted 28-5 for a 988 bill that would include continuous appropriations to the mental health crisis hotline. The Senate amended HB-1236 Tuesday, so the bill must return to the House for a concurrence vote. Under existing law, the General Assembly must agree to a 988 appropriation annually.