Florida House overwhelmingly approves consumer privacy bill

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida House resoundingly approved a consumer privacy bill on Wednesday, giving the public an opportunity to regain ownership of the personal data collected by companies and the right to sue companies for mishandling information in a marketplace where consumers themselves have become lucrative commodities.

The state Senate is expected to soon take up the House bill, as part of a package of proposals sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis meant to reign in Big Tech firms. The Republican governor is also seeking to redress concerns, particularly among conservatives, about how social media companies handle unpopular views.

Florida, the country's third most populous state, would be the latest to enact consumer protections against Big Data's ability to harvest personal information about how people conduct their day-to-day lives, including where they shop and eat, what they read and what they share online.

The resulting dossier is often bought and sold in a lucrative marketplace that has become an important element of modern commerce.

“It's clear we all agree that we need to do something about data privacy,” said Rep. Fiona McFarland, the Republican who was tapped to carry the bill in the House, adding that "the tech world has perhaps gone just a little bit too far without us knowing what's going on.”

Business interests have lobbied heavily against the proposal. McFarland noted that more than 300 lobbyists had registered to speak on the bill as it wound through legislative committees.

Despite intense lobbying from business interests, the House version retains a provision that would allow individual consumers to sue companies that do not comply with the law, including selling information when a consumer has asked that a company does not do so.

The...