Many Comprehensive State Privacy Bills Expected to Return Next Year
A slew of comprehensive privacy law bills from 2025 are expected to return in the new year. While no new states joined about 20 others with broad consumer privacy laws this year, 16 additional states had bills that either will carry over to 2026 or could be reintroduced.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
"I would be surprised if ... current conditions hold in all of those places again and nothing passes," said Consumer Reports Policy Analyst Matt Schwartz.
For instance, Georgia’s SB-111 is “still active,” sponsor Sen. John Albers (R) said last week in written answers to our questions. “It was very close [this year] and should pass in 2026.” The bill passed the Senate on March 3 but remained in a House committee when the session ended (see 2504030013). Since then, said Albers, the bill’s content hasn’t changed, and he believes it’s “the best of all states combined.” Georgia shouldn’t wait for a national privacy law, he said, “but if the federal government does act it will supersede all states with the supremacy clause.”
Also carrying over to 2026 is Pennsylvania’s HB-78, which passed the House in a bipartisan vote in October and is now in the Senate Consumer Protection Committee (see 2510020029). Meanwhile, another privacy bill (SB-112) is pending in the Communications Committee.
Pennsylvania Senate Communications Committee Chair Tracy Pennycuick (R) is “optimistic we will be able to find a path forward for the issue in the Senate in 2026,” she said in a statement emailed to us Monday. She noted that the committee last year approved the 2024 version of HB-78. “This bill [was] an important step in protecting the privacy of Pennsylvania consumers.”
In Massachusetts, the House Ways and Means Committee is reviewing the Senate-passed S-2619 and the House’s own H-4746, said a spokesperson for House Speaker Ronald Mariano (D). The House bill varies from the Senate version by including a limited private right of action and somewhat different language on data minimization, among other things (see 2511180042).
Maine’s privacy bill with strict data minimization requirements (LD-1822) could also move. Its sponsor, Judiciary Committee House Chair Amy Kuhn (D), said in a Dec. 19 email that she expects a vote in the session that starts January, which is the second year of a two-year legislative cycle. “No substantive changes are anticipated at this time, though I am watching new bills under consideration as well as implementation of enacted laws,” said Kuhn.
In Wisconsin, another state with a two-year cycle, SB-166 by Sen. Romaine Quinn (D) and AB-172 by Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (D) are set to return. A Quinn spokesperson told us in a Dec. 18 email: “We have had conversations about the bill with the committee chair and have an indication a public hearing may be held early in 2026.”
South Carolina’s HB-3401, a bill that hews closely to Florida’s privacy law, also stayed alive from 2025 to 2026, said sponsor Rep. Brandon Guffey (R). “It hasn’t moved yet, but hopefully it will get a hearing this year,” he emailed us Dec. 18.
Meanwhile, in New York state, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D) plans to reintroduce 2025 comprehensive privacy bills A-974 and A-8158, which each had Senate versions (S-8524 and S-3044, respectively) by Internet Committee Chair Kristen Gonzalez (D). “It’s something we are [going to] focus on and are excited to make progress,” a Rozic spokesperson said Dec. 19. “Overall, data privacy is our biggest agenda item.”
In addition, Vermont Rep. Monique Priestley (D) plans to renew her push for comprehensive privacy legislation when lawmakers return next month, she said in an interview earlier this month (see 2512040015). On May 30, as Vermont’s 2025 legislative session neared its end, Priestley posted an amended version of S-71, her comprehensive privacy bill, with a plan of trying to advance it in 2026 (see 2505300047).
Two other states with comprehensive privacy bills that remain active in 2025-2026 biennium sessions are North Carolina (S-757) and Washington state (HB-1671).
While a New Mexico bill is expected to be reintroduced, timing and logistical issues from a short, 30-day session this year could prevent it from getting a hearing until 2027 (see 2512230080). Other states with annual sessions, like New Mexico, and which had comprehensive privacy bills in 2025, include Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi and Oklahoma.