{"id":377,"date":"2018-07-26T18:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T22:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/blog\/?p=377"},"modified":"2018-07-26T18:46:20","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T22:46:20","slug":"vermont-california-privacy-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/blog\/vermont-california-privacy-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermont, California Pass Privacy Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We originally published this post on our <\/span><\/i><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abine.com\/blog\/2018\/vermont-to-regulate-data-brokers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Online Privacy Blog<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but we\u2019ve updated it here as the story has progressed. (Originally published: May 30, 2018)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In May 2018, Vermont became the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/vermont-passes-first-of-its-kind-law-to-regulate-data-b-1826359383\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>first U.S. state<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to regulate data brokers that buy and sell personal information of consumers. Until now, major data brokers like Whitepages, BeenVerified, and MyLife have operated with little to no surveillance. In June, California enacted the strongest data privacy laws in the nation, allowing customers to ask businesses to reveal the personal information it gathers on them and block the businesses from selling the information. These laws are meant to provide a layer of protection to consumers, as well as hold these companies accountable. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Vermont\u2019s Laws Regulating Data Brokers<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data brokers crawl the web for personal information from public sources, like government records and social media. They collect this information and compile it into personal listings, which they post on their own sites. This makes personal information, like your address and phone number, easy to find from just a quick Google search.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are four main components to Vermont\u2019s new privacy law:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><b>The elimination of credit freezing or un-freezing fees. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019ve ever been a victim of a data breach, you were probably told to contact the major credit reporting agencies and file for a \u201ccredit freeze\u201d, which would block anyone from opening a new line of credit in your name. In turn, you would have to remove the freeze if you wanted to then open a new line of credit. These agencies usually charge a fee of $5-20 to freeze or unfreeze an account, which can become a burden if you are involved in multiple breaches.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>It is now illegal to fraudulently acquire personal information for any reason, but especially for stalking, harassment, ID theft, or discrimination.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> While these activities are likely already illegal under several other state and federal laws, this section clarifies the law further, banning illegal acquisition and use of personal data for the purpose of discrimination.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Minimum data security measures are now clearly defined.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Data brokers must now stay up-to-par in their security proceedings, which is especially important for businesses that regularly deal with a large amounts of personal data.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Transparency about data brokers.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The state of Vermont now requires data brokers to be clearer, and better inform consumers on exactly what kinds of data they collect, and provide clear instructions for <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/blog\/opt-out-guides\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>how to opt out<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, it often takes a big scandal, like the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/equifax-breaks-down-just-how-bad-last-year-s-data-n872496\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Equifax data breach<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or the <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/forbes\/welcome\/?toURL=https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/forbesagencycouncil\/2018\/05\/13\/key-takeaways-from-the-facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-scandal\/&amp;refURL=https:\/\/www.google.com\/&amp;referrer=https:\/\/www.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Facebook and Cambridge Analytica<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> story to get people to understand the importance of data security and privacy. White <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abine.com\/blog\/2018\/gdpr-abine-privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>GDPR<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in effect in the EU and <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/news\/californias-new-data-privacy-law-the-toughest-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>new data privacy laws in California<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it seems governments are finally beginning to make a concerted effort to address data security.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>California Consumer Privacy Act<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California\u2019s new privacy law is similar to <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abine.com\/blog\/2018\/gdpr-good-blur-better\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GDPR<\/a><\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the online privacy regulation passed earlier this year in the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are four main components:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><b>Right to deletion. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The consumer has the right to have their information deleted by the company that holds it.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>Right to knowledge. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The consumer has the right to know what information is being collected by a company, and to whom it is sold or disclosed.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to opt out.<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;The consumer has the right to opt out of having their information sold, and the company is then not allowed to give them lessened service.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bans companies from selling data on users <strong>under 16 years old.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law applies to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">any entity that does business in California and also<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Makes over $25 million per year, OR<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">handles the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers, households, or devices, OR<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gets 50% or more of its yearly income from selling consumers\u2019 personal information.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s especially nice about the law is that a lot of the sites we use- such as Facebook or Google, fit these criteria, and will likely change their policies for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>DeleteMe vs Data Brokers: Remove info from Whitepages, Remove info from Google<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While data security laws have already been passed in our home state of <\/span><span style=\"color: #674ea7;\"><a style=\"color: #674ea7;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mass.gov\/ago\/doing-business-in-massachusetts\/privacy-and-data-security\/standards-for-the-protection-of-personal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Massachusetts<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Commonwealth has yet to address data brokers as a whole. Abine, Inc. applauds the states of Vermont and California for their efforts to protect consumer data and privacy.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For eight years, <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>DeleteMe<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has helped individuals opt out of the largest data broker sites; we\u2019ve processed over <\/span><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/abines-deleteme-achieves-milestone-10000000-consumer-opt-outs-300625627.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>10 million consumer opt outs<\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. DeleteMe by Abine can remove personal information from Whitepages, Spokeo, and many other leading data brokers. By removing the source information from these sites, DeleteMe prevents Google from displaying your personal information in their search results.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>About Abine<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><span style=\"color: #674ea7;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Abine, Inc.<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is The Online Privacy Company. Founded in 2009 by MIT engineers and financial experts, Abine\u2019s mission is to provide easy-to-use online privacy tools and services to everybody who wants them. Abine\u2019s tools are built for consumers to help them control the personal information companies, third parties, and other<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> people<\/span> see about them online.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #674ea7;\"><a style=\"color: #674ea7;\" href=\"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">DeleteMe<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Abine is a hands-free subscription service that removes personal information from public online databases, data brokers, and people search websites.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #674ea7;\"><a style=\"color: #674ea7;\" href=\"https:\/\/dnt.abine.com\/#premiumreg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Blur<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Abine is the only password manager and digital wallet that also blocks trackers, and helps users remain private online by providing \u2018Masked\u2019 information whenever companies are asking for personal information.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abine\u2019s solutions have been trusted by over 25 million people world.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We originally published this post on our Online Privacy Blog, but we\u2019ve updated it here as the story has progressed. (Originally published: May 30, 2018) In May 2018, Vermont became the first U.S. state to regulate data brokers that buy and sell personal information of consumers. Until now, major data brokers like Whitepages, BeenVerified, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-privacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}