Proposed State Privacy Law Update: April 14, 2025

Keypoint: Last week, Montana’s legislature inched closer to significantly revising its consumer data privacy law, Oregon’s consumer data privacy amendment bills advanced, and there were numerous developments with Arkansas’ bills in advance of its upcoming adjournment.

Below is the fourteenth weekly update on the status of proposed state privacy legislation in 2025. As always, the contents provided below are time-sensitive and subject to change.

Table of Contents

1. What’s New
2. AI Bills
3. Bill Tracker Chart

1. What’s New

The lead story this week comes from Montana where the legislature is on the cusp of making several substantial changes to the state’s consumer data privacy law. Senator Zolnikov’s SB 297 unanimously passed the House (99-0). The bill was amended while in the House so it has been transmitted to the Senate for concurrence. The bill amends Montana’s existing consumer data privacy law to lower the applicability threshold, modify the GLBA entity-level exemption and non-profit exemption, add Connecticut/Colorado-style children’s privacy protections, add Minnesota-style privacy policy and request to access provisions, and remove the right to cure.

Meanwhile, one of Oregon’s amendment bills, HB 3875, unanimously passed the House and is scheduled for its first Senate reading on April 14. The bill amends Oregon’s consumer data privacy law to make it applicable to motor vehicle manufacturers and their affiliates that control or process personal data obtained from a consumer’s motor vehicle regardless of whether the company satisfies the law’s other applicability thresholds.

Oregon’s other amendment bill, HB 3899, was reportedly abandoned. However, HB 2008 was amended on April 8 and now would amend the state’s consumer data privacy law to prohibit the sale of personal data or processing of personal data for targeted advertising or profiling if the controller has actual knowledge or willfully disregards that the consumer is under 16 years or age. It also would prohibit the sale of precise geolocation data.

In committee-level developments, Alabama’s consumer data privacy bill (HB 283) was reported out of committee on April 9 while Oklahoma’s SB 546 received a do pass vote from a House committee. The Oklahoma bill previously passed the Senate. The Alabama and Oklahoma legislatures close on May 15 and May 30, respectively.

Moving to the northeast, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity held a hearing on numerous bills on April 9, including the consumer data privacy laws introduced to date.

West Virginia residents will need to wait at least one more year for consumer data privacy rights. The West Virginia legislature closed on April 12. The House passed HB 2987 in late March but the bill never advanced in the Senate.

Turning to new consumer data privacy bills, a group of Wisconsin House members introduced AB 172, which is a companion bill to SB 166.

Finally, it was a very active week for the Arkansas legislature as its Wednesday, April 16 closing date approaches. SB 611 (Social Media Safety Act amendments) passed the Senate on April 7. An amended version of the bill subsequently passed a House committee.

Similarly, SB 612 (PRA against social media platforms) passed the Senate on April 8 and is moving through the House.

Meanwhile, an amended HB 1717 (Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act) passed the Senate on April 9. The bill previously passed the House in mid-March. However, since it was amended in the Senate, the bill was referred to back to House for concurrence. The bill is now with a House committee.

On the other hand, SB 258 (consumer data privacy) failed to pass the Senate twice on third reading.

2. AI Bills

Our latest edition of Byte Back AI is now available to subscribers. Subscriptions start as low as $50/month. In this edition, we provide:

• Updates on laws enacted in Montana, Kansas and North Dakota, bills passing out of the Maryland and West Virginia legislatures, and bills crossing chambers in Arkansas, Illinois, Montana, and Texas.
• A summary of committee hearings on two Nevada bills.
• Our special feature this week – an analysis of the Maryland bills that passed the legislature last week and have been delivered to Governor Moore’s office.
• Our “three things to know this week.”
• An updated state AI bill tracker chart.

Click here for more information on paid subscriptions.

3. Bill Tracker Chart

For more information on all of the privacy bills introduced to date, including links to the bills, bill status, last action, and hearing dates, please see our bill tracker chart.