H.B. 969 addresses consumer data privacy, requiring “certain businesses to provide notice to consumers about data collection & selling practices” among other privacy concerns. After the House Civil Justice & Property Rights Subcommittee held a favorable hearing on the bill, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (R) issued a statement.
In hist statement, Patronis commented that “there’s nothing more valuable to a person than one’s own identity, and Floridians deserve to have control over their own personal work.” He added that elected officials “must protect Florida’s consumers from the big tech companies who look to profit from consumers private information, and that is why I have called on the Legislature to pass these critical protections.”
At the beginning of the year, Patronis outlined his efforts to assist consumers is holding big tech accountable.
Patronis asserted that “it’s time we recognize the reality that consumers have a property interest in the private information big tech companies are buying and selling on a daily basis.” Noting the threat that big tech companies can pose on the privacy of Americans’ lives in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, he expressed that “big tech leverages consumer data to the detriment of Floridians and the brick-and-mortar businesses that employ them.”
H.B. 969 is cosponsored by Florida Reps. Cyndi Stevenson (R) and Ana Eskamani (D), who is rumored to be launching a gubernatorial run in the upcoming 2022 midterm election.
