Maine Privacy Law Survives Challenge by Internet Service Providers

One of many strictest web privateness legal guidelines in the US has withstood a authorized problem, as a gaggle of telecommunication suppliers has dropped its bid to overturn the Maine commonplace.

Maine created one of many hardest guidelines within the nation for web service suppliers in 2020 when it started implementing an “opt-in” internet privateness commonplace. The legislation stops the service suppliers from utilizing, disclosing, promoting or offering entry to prospects’ private info with out permission.

Trade associations swiftly sued with a declare that the brand new legislation violated their First Modification rights. A federal choose rejected that problem, however authorized wrangling continued.

The teams, which embrace the nation’s greatest telecommunications suppliers, filed to dismiss the lawsuit on Sept. 2, mentioned Maine Lawyer Basic Aaron Frey. Frey mentioned the state’s privateness legislation held up regardless of the efforts of an “military of business attorneys organized towards us,” and now different states can comply with Maine’s lead.

“Maine’s Legislature properly sought to guard Maine residents by limiting the disclosure and use of their most personal and private info,” Frey mentioned.

The Maine Legislature handed the invoice, proposed by former Democratic state Sen. Shenna Bellows, who’s now Maine’s secretary of state, in 2019. Web service suppliers then sued in February 2020, and attorneys for Maine have been in court docket defending the legislation since. The proposal stemmed from a Maine effort to carry again guidelines applied throughout President Barack Obama’s tenure that had been repealed by Congress throughout President Donald Trump’s time period.

Trade plaintiffs agreed to reimburse Maine for greater than $55,000 in prices incurred defending the legislation, Frey mentioned.

Supporters of Maine’s legislation embrace the ACLU of Maine, which filed court docket papers within the case in favor of holding the legislation on the books. The ACLU mentioned in court docket papers that the legislation was “narrowly drawn to instantly advance Maine’s substantial pursuits in defending customers’ privateness, freedom of expression, and safety.”

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has additionally defended the legislation as “frequent sense.”

Maine can be the house of one other privateness legislation that regulates using facial recognition know-how. That legislation, which got here on the books final yr, has additionally been cited because the strictest of its variety within the U.S.

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