Governor Wes Moore has signed the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act into law today, making Maryland home to one of the strongest comprehensive consumer privacy bills in the nation, second only to California. Sponsored by state Sen. Dawn Gile and Del. Sara Love, the law limits companies’ data collection, giving consumers meaningful online privacy and security protections.
While the tech lobby alsotried to weaken Maryland’s bill, these efforts failed to strip the core protections from the legislation.
The most important provision of the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act prohibits companies from collecting more data than is necessary to deliver the service a consumer is expecting to get, and stops companies from selling sensitive information – such as your health data – to third parties. This is known as “data minimization”. These common sense limits will boost consumers’ privacy and personal security, as the overcollection and oversharing of data between companies makes it more likely an individual’s information will be exposed in a breach or a hack. When this happens, it greatly increases the chances of data ending up with identity thieves or online scammers.