New York S 4276: Enacts the "digital fairness act"

Bill Text

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 Speaker Carl E. Heastie

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S04276 Summary:

BILL NOS04276 

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SAME ASNo Same As

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SPONSORKAVANAGH

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COSPNSRHINCHEY

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MLTSPNSR

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Add Art 39-FFF §§899-qq - 899-ww, §350-a-1, Gen Bus L; amd §292, add §296-e, Exec L; amd §§8 & 165, St Fin L;
amd §814, Ed L

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Enacts the "digital fairness act"; requires any entity that conducts business in New York and maintains the personal information of 500 or more individuals to provide meaningful notice about their use of personal information; establishes unlawful discriminatory practices relating to targeted advertising.

Go to top S04276 Actions:

BILL NOS04276 

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02/03/2025REFERRED TO INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY

01/07/2026REFERRED TO INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY

Go to topS04276 Committee&nbspVotes:

Go to topS04276 Floor&nbspVotes:

There are no Assembly votes for this bill in this legislative session.

Go to topS04276 Text:

 STATE OF NEW YORK
 ________________________________________________________________________

 4276

 2025-2026 Regular Sessions

 IN SENATE

 February 3, 2025
 ___________

 Introduced by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
 printed to be committed to the Committee on Internet and Technology

 AN ACT to amend the general business law, the executive law, the state
 finance law and the education law, in relation to enacting the
 "digital fairness act"

 The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
 bly, do enact as follows:

 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
 2 the "digital fairness act".
 3 § 2. Legislative findings. The legislature finds that privacy
 4 violations and misuse of personal information in the digital age can
 5 lead to a range of harms, including discrimination in employment,
 6 healthcare, housing, access to credit, and other areas; unfair price
 7 discrimination; and financial, emotional, or reputational harms. Misuse
 8 of personal information can limit awareness of and access to opportu-
 9 nities, exacerbate information disparities, erode public trust and free
 10 expression, disincentivize individuals from participating fully in
 11 digital life and utilizing online services, and increase the risk of
 12 future harms.
 13 The legislature additionally finds that individuals in New York state,
 14 like individuals across the nation, do not know or consent to the manner
 15 in which entities collect, use, retain, share, and monetize their
 16 personal information. This misunderstanding is, at least in part, due to
 17 obfuscation on the part of the entities leveraging individuals' personal
 18 information. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon found that it would take
 19 seventy-six work days for individuals to read all of the privacy poli-
 20 cies they encounter in a year. Although the advertising industry devel-
 21 oped a common logo and slogan to notify individuals of the opportunity
 22 to opt-out of targeted advertising, following market research, the
 23 industry selected the slogan and logo that few individuals understood,
 24 seemingly to discourage opt-out.

 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
 [ ] is old law to be omitted.
 LBD08096-01-5

 S. 4276 2

 1 The legislature further finds that entities that collect, use, retain,
 2 share, and monetize personal information have specialized knowledge
 3 about the algorithms and data security measures they use, as well as
 4 about how they collect, use, retain, share, and monetize personal infor-
 5 mation, that the average individual is unlikely to understand. Just as
 6 banks, lawyers, and medical providers, given their specialized know-
 7 ledge, have special obligations to individuals, entities collecting
 8 intimate personal information in the digital age and benefiting from
 9 similarly specialized knowledge should have similar obligations.
 10 The legislature also finds that individuals in New York state, like
 11 individuals across the country, value privacy and wish to control who
 12 has access to their personal information. Ninety-two percent of Face-
 13 book users alter the social network's default privacy settings, demon-
 14 strating that they wish to choose with whom they share personal informa-
 15 tion. Similarly, ninety-two percent of Americans believe companies
 16