Massachusetts Leads the Fight in Consumer Privacy
Massachusetts may become the first state in the nation to establish a total ban on selling and buying location data derived from mobile devices.
Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), SB148 would make it illegal for service providers to collect and retain location information that is “not necessary to carry out the permissible purpose” of the data. The legislation would also prohibit these providers from selling, buying, or trading location data to third parties from mobile phones in Massachusetts.
A similar bill has been proposed by Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose).
The proposal also establishes a warrant-requirement for law enforcement to use location information that is obtained from service providers, which is reflected in the landmark privacy decision from the U.S. Supreme Court case Carpenter v. United States (2018). The Court ruled that government entities need a warrant to access cellular phone location data, extending to law enforcement seizures. However, there is currently no national ban on law enforcement from purchasing this information from private companies.
Location data is often gathered from applications services on mobile devices, and can offer location patterns that can identify the user. This has sounded alarms from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, who say this data “reveals the most sensitive and intimate things” about the user. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization (2022), which eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, the group warns that location data can track individuals who seek reproductive care in Massachusetts.
This sentiment was also shared by Senator Creem, who testified before the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Leisure in June.
“We must protect those seeking abortion care in Massachusetts and our providers from vigilant efforts to track their movement through the location data,” said Creem. “And as legislators, we must respond quickly to this threat and protect vulnerable populations from having their location data used against them through this unwarranted surveillance.”
Creem continued to say that the proposal does not just protect those seeking reproductive health care, but also other at-risk demographics. Access to sensitive data like home addresses and names increases the risk of harm to victims of domestic violence and those subjected to bias-motivated attacks.
The proposal comes on the heels of a published government report that was released by the Office of the Director of National Security in June. The report, dated January 2022, details the use of purchased data through third parties by U.S. government agencies such as the Navy, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
If passed, SB148 would still allow for applications such as weather and ride-share apps to utilize the location of the user, but would prohibit the sale and transfer of data to any other service provider.
While other states have taken initiatives to protect digital privacy, Massachusetts would be the first to completely ban service providers from selling location data. States such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia have passed privacy laws that crack down on data brokers and establish user consent agreements to what data a service provider can sell, but none go as far as the legislation proposed in Massachusetts. If SB148 were to pass in the legislature, it would earn Massachusetts the leading role in the fight against data privacy infringement.