Maine Governor Signs Nation’s Toughest Internet Data Privacy Law

The state of Maine on Thursday officially became the country’s safest state when it comes to protecting the online data of internet users, when Governor Janet Mills signed “An Act To Protect the Privacy of Online Customer Information,” a bill which goes beyond even California’s tough rules on internet privacy. California’s law requires internet companies to stop sharing or selling personal data when a user files a request to stop the data transactions. But the new Maine legislation imposes no such requirement on customers of internet service providers. Instead, it switches the obligations around, requiring the company to ask the user for approval before selling or sharing personal data. What type of data is covered by the new Maine privacy law? According to National Law Review, the law prohibits companies from sharing or selling a customer’s “web browsing history, application usage history, precise geolocation information, device identifiers, the origin and destination internet protocol addresses, personal identifying information, and the content of a customer’s communications.” The law also bans service providers from refusing to serve customers who deny their consent for data-sharing, and prohibits them from offering special deals or any type of financial incentive for customers to “opt in” to a data sharing plan. Companies must also take “reasonable” steps to protect customer data from hacks and other forms of unauthorized access. The new law goes into effect just a week after New York legislators introduced a similar internet privacy bill for that state, as AVN.com reported. The New York bill, which is still working its way through the state legislature, would also require online companies to obtain consent before selling or sharing user data. The bills would largely restore protections put in place by the Federal Communications Commission in 2016, the final year of the Barack Obama administration. Those rules were quickly repealed by the Republican-controlled Congress the following year. Donald Trump signed the bill, nullifying the rules which had been put in place less than a month before the 2016 presidential election. Photo By Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons