Consumer data inadequately protected by state privacy laws

Nearly 50% of 14 U.S. states that passed consumer data privacy laws have failed to properly protect their residents' data from improper usage by private firms, StateScoop reports. Such weaknesses in state privacy laws were attributed to the prevalence of corporate lobbying, with Amazon and other tech giants found to have been behind the data privacy model followed by California's Consumer Privacy Act, which had the highest score among all state privacy legislation at B+, according to a report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund. State privacy laws have also been hampered by their lack of "private right of action," as well as the absence of federal privacy legislation. The findings have prompted researchers to recommend states to shift privacy management responsibilities to corporations through "data minimization" obligations, as well as adopt more intensive regulations on sensitive data collection. "States that have passed inadequate laws can always amend them. All states still have the ability to better protect their residents' privacy," said the report.