EPIC Testifies in Support of Maryland Online Data Privacy Act  

John Davisson, EPIC Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation, testified before the Maryland House Economic Matters Committee in support of HB 567, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act.  

The bill includes key data minimization principles and strong civil rights protections, modeled on the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (“ADPPA”). The bill’s data minimization requirements include limiting the collection of personal data to what is reasonably necessary for the product or service consumers request and protecting sensitive data by requiring its collection and use to meet the higher standard of strictly necessary. 

These protections make the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act significantly stronger than most of the other comprehensive privacy laws states have passed so far. 

“Unfortunately, Connecticut’s law allows businesses to continue collecting and using whatever personal data they want, as long as they bury what they’re doing in a long privacy policy that no one will read. This is fake privacy protection—something that may look like a strong privacy law to the untrained eye, but in reality, just greenlights the harmful type of business as usual,” Davisson told the Committee. “The Connecticut model is wrong for Maryland, and EPIC commends the sponsors of HB 567 for instead setting strong limits on the amount of personal data companies can collect and how they can use it.”