States Drop a Flurry of Consumer Privacy Bills, Following California's Example

A while ago, many predicted that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was just the beginning of consumer privacy laws in the United States—and they were right. Over the past few months, proposed privacy legislation began popping up in states throughout the country. 

insideARM republished several articles through its partnership with Maurice Wutscher LLP regarding some of these new bills. It would be helpful to combine everything into one post to help companies in the ARM industry track what is going on nationwide, so that is what we have done here. 

Below are articles—both the ones republished by insideARM and those that appear on Maurice Wutscher's Consumer Financial Services Blog—of the privacy legislation avalanche from the recent months:

• Arizona—"Arizona Privacy Legislation – Right, Left and Center(ish)"
• Illinois—"‘Consumer Privacy Act’ Introduced in the Land of Lincoln"
• Mississippi—"‘Consumer Data Privacy Act’ Introduced in Mississippi With Expansive Coverage"
• New Jersey—"Privacy Legislation Introduced in the Garden State is a Short but Weedy Row to Hoe"
• Rhode Island—"‘Consumer Privacy Protection Act’ Introduced in the Ocean State" 
• Wisconsin—"GDPR-ish Wisconsin Privacy Bills Go Together Like Beer, Bratwurst and Polka"
• Hawaii, Maryland—"Hawaii and Maryland Jump on the Privacy Bandwagon with New Legislation"
• Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia—"And They’re Off! Multiple States Charging Ahead With Privacy Legislation"

These states join Texas and Washington, which began their venture into privacy legislation about a year ago. And, of course, the mother of them all—the CCPA—recently went through a round of amendments by the California Attorney General's Office. Detailed articles about the CCPA amendments can be found here. 

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insideARM Perspective

If you collect in any (or multiple) of the above states, it's time to brush up on what's going on and keep yourself informed. Odds are that more states will join in the future, and a federal law regarding consumer privacy may very well become reality at some point as well. The good news is that, given the legal and regulatory landscape of the industry, debt collectors are accustomed to pivoting and dealing with legislative changes. Adapting to the new privacy laws will be a similar endeavor, even if at a larger scale.