Massachusetts considers prohibiting sale of user location information
The Massachusetts state legislature is currently reviewing a proposed bill that aims to prohibit the sale of phone location data belonging to users. If approved, the Location Shield Act would become the first law of its kind in the country, filling the void left by Congress’s lack of progress in implementing comprehensive user privacy measures on a national level. Additionally, the state’s proposed legislation would mandate that law enforcement obtain a warrant before accessing user location data from data brokers.
Today, The Wall Street Journal published a report with numerous details about the proposed legislation, following earlier debates in the state House ( The Athol Daily News reported ). Of course, the bill wouldn’t prevent Massachusetts residents from using their phone’s location services for things that directly benefit them — like navigating Google Maps, making DoorDash deliveries, or hailing an Uber. However, it would prevent technology companies and data vendors from selling this data to third parties – a practice with no clear consumer benefit.
The Location Shield Act is supported by the ACLU and several progressive and pro-choice groups, who see it as even more urgent to prevent the dissemination of a user’s location in a post-Dobbs world. As red states increasingly criminalize abortion, concerns have grown about users’ information being transferred to catch women who travel out of state to have the procedure or obtain medication. In addition, supporters of the bill raise concerns about national security and the consequences of digital stalking.
The law is opposed by the State Privacy & Security Coalition, a trade organization representing the technology industry. “The definition of sale is very broad,” said Andrew Kingman, the association’s general counsel. He says the group supports enhanced protections, but would prefer to give consumers “an option to opt out of the sale,” as other state laws have done, rather than impose an outright ban. Of course, making it optional rather than a total ban would probably be much better for the whistleblowers.
Requiring law enforcement agencies to give permission to access users’ location data could also reduce the growing trend of law enforcement agencies buying that data commercially. A 2022 ACLU investigation found that the Department of Homeland Security purchased more than 336,000 data points to essentially avoid the Fourth Amendment’s search warrant requirement. While the U.S. Supreme Court has said agencies generally need a warrant to access carriers’ location data, buying data from private companies has been a loophole.
Massachusetts’ legislative session will run into next year, and supporters of the bill are showing optimism that it will pass. “I have every reason to be optimistic that something will happen this session,” Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem (D), the bill’s sponsor, told the WSJ.
