Recently Introduced Legislation Affecting Businesses

As with construction, several bills were introduced in the General Assembly that would affect businesses.  Again, they are too numerous for a single blog post, but two affect individuals’ privacy rights, which I have previously written about.

 The first, found here, would amend the Personal Information Protection Act, written about here, to include data collected through an application or device, genetic information and nonpublic social media information about an individual.   The bill also modifies the statute’s time deadlines, notice requirements and certain other provisions. The bill amplifies the requirements on a business in case of a data breach.

 The Maryland Online Consumer Protection Act, found here, was also reintroduced (it was previously introduced in 2019).  Among other things, the Act, if passed, would require certain businesses that collect personal information to provide notice at or before collection as to the categories and purposes of information collected, and the categories and purposes of third-party disclosure of the information. The Act also provides consumers the right (a) to request copies of their personal information, (b) to have the business delete the information, and (c) to opt out of third-party disclosure.  The Act contains several other provisions, and imposes significant obligations on businesses that collect personal information.

Stay tuned for updates.