Quoted: Georgia privacy law in MediaPost

"Georgia Lawmakers Advance Privacy Bill That Exempts Pseudonymous Data"

by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 1, 2024

"Georgia lawmakers advanced a privacy bill that would allow residents to wield some control over their data, but doesn't give people the right to opt out of a common form of online behavioral advertising..."

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“The bill needs to be substantially improved before it is enacted; otherwise, it would risk locking in industry-friendly provisions that avoid actual reform,” Maggie Oates, a policy analyst with advocacy group Consumer Reports, writes in a letter sent to Georgia lawmakers on Wednesday.

Oates adds that the exemption for pseudonymous data “represents a major loophole that could exempt the majority of the online advertising ecosystem from the most substantive aspects of this bill’s coverage.”

“Online platforms and advertisers use pseudonymous identifiers (often cookies) to track users across websites, collecting extremely granular data about a user’s search history, usage, personal characteristics, and interests in order to serve them targeted advertisements or to create a profile they can sell to other interested third-parties,” Oates added. “Though this is precisely the type of online tracking this bill ostensibly seeks to grant consumers more control over, this exemption would allow vast swaths of it to continue unabated.”

Georgia Lawmakers Advance Privacy Bill That Exempts Pseudonymous Data

Georgia lawmakers advanced a privacy bill that would allow residents to wield some control over their data, but doesn’t give people the right to opt out of a common form of online behavioral advertising.

Wendy Davis