A campaign by Gov. Ron DeSantis to help Floridians regain ownership of the troves of data that companies collect came to a halt Friday, when state lawmakers could not agree on how tightly to limit how Big Data harvests and uses people’s information.
It was a rare defeat for DeSantis in his bid to regulate how Big Tech treats people. Earlier this week, lawmakers sent him a measure that would punish social media companies that he and other Republicans contend discriminate and censor conservatives.
Unlike the social media proposal, the legislative effort to address consumer data privacy was mostly bipartisan. But business interests lobbied heavily against the proposal, and the industry’s fingerprints were clearly on the legislation.
“We started an important conversation about data privacy for Floridians and took strong first steps toward commonsense changes,” said Rep. Fiona McFarland, who sponsored the House version of the effort.
“Each session there are dozens of important issues that we debate and consider in a short 60-day window. This is the nature of the legislative process, and I look forward to continuing the good work on this complicated issue in the next session,” she said.
From the start, the bill seemed destined for trouble — not only because of opposition from business lobbyists but also from lawmakers who thought the matter was better addressed on the federal level. That was intimated by Senate President Wilton Simpson, who had joined DeSantis for a news conference earlier this year to announce the legislative effort.
An early sticking point between the two chambers focused on whether individual Floridians could sue companies that don’t comply with the law, but both sides agreed to strike the provision.
Still, there were insurmountable differences. The ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
