DES PLAINES – State Senator Laura Murphy is leading a comprehensive measure to protect consumers’ data and shield them from targeted advertisements.
“By placing guardrails around consumers’ personal information, we eliminate companies’ ability to collect and sell the most sensitive data of Illinoisans,” said Murphy (D-Des Plaines). “We then put the power in the hands of the people to take any additional action to protect their data and correct inaccuracies about their data.”
Murphy’s Senate Bill 340 would create the Illinois Consumer Data Privacy Act, which would provide Illinois consumers with certain rights to their personal data. The measure would prohibit sensitive data from being collected, processed or sold to third parties. Under the bill, sensitive data would include a person’s racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, biometric identifiers, geolocation and more. Additionally, consumers would be able to opt out of any additional data collected by companies from being used for advertisements or sold to third parties.
Currently, algorithmic profiling uses consumer data to target and influence pricing on major life decisions like loan approvals, job screenings or insurance rates. Murphy’s measure would create a path for consumers to prevent their data from being used by submitting a request to a controller.
“The rise in artificial intelligence makes it easy for companies to sort through data quickly and find personal information,” said Murphy. “This makes data protection legislation like Senate Bill 340 even more urgent as we keep Illinoisans protected from advancing technology.”
Senate Bill 340 passed the Senate on Wednesday.
