Despite what industry would like us all to think, privacy is not dead!
Aren’t you tired of your data not being your own, of your digital life being carelessly smooshed up and segmented and sold across a thousand commercial and governmental databases? We’ve gotten used to putting up with what that means – the scams, the stress, the self-policing, the endless robocalls, the poorly targeted ads, the data-fueled AI chatbots and LLMs that mimic real thinking the way pink slime mimics a grass-fed steak. This is no way to live.
But it’s also not the only way to live. Here in the Commonwealth, we can do better, like Maryland and the EU have already done. Yesterday, Digital Fourth activists sent a coalition letter to Senate and House leadership, urging them to pass S.2516, the Massachusetts Digital Privacy Act. This is genuinely an excellent privacy bill — so good that industry has already swung into action against it, even though the bill is barely out of the Senate Committee on Advanced Technology (who did great work on this).
This bill includes:
- Strong data minimization provisions, which limit:
- the collection and use of personal data to what is reasonably necessary for a company to provide the data or service requested by a consumer
- The collection and use of sensitive data to what is strictly necessary to provide the data or service requested by a consumer
- A clear list of all of the kinds of data that must be regarded as sensitive.
- Prohibition on the sale of sensitive data.
- Requires affirmative consent of a consumer before each transfer of their personal data.
- Provides every consumer with the right to see, correct verifiable inaccuracies in, and delete their personal data that has been collected by a company.
- Gives consumers the right to opt out of targeted advertising or automated profiling.
- Requiring that companies provide a clear and obvious privacy notice about their data collection practice and security measures and method to contact them for execution of all of a consumer’s rights.
- Establishes a free automated mechanism whereby consumers can learn whether a data broker possesses their data and can request that their data be deleted.
Call your legislator to let them know they should support this bill!
COALITION LETTER: https://warrantless.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/MDPA-Leadership-Outreach-Letter-2025-06-12.pdf
DETAILED EXPLAINER: https://warrantless.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/The-Urgent-Need-for-Effective-Comprehensive-Data-Privacy-Protections-Created-in-MDPA-S.2516-.pdf
ENDORSERS:
We’re glad to say that we’re not alone in this fight: The letter was cosigned by AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, Fight for the Future, the National Council of Jewish Women, YW Boston and more, and now also the Consumer Federation of America.
