Arkansas privacy bills are moving forward, but they may have lost some of their effectiveness, according to a report by MLEX.
Senate Bill 258 originally included wide coverage of AI and biometrics, but the Senate Committee on Transport, Technology and Legislative Affairs was passed only after major amendments, based on concerns raised by companies that said the bill was too broad.
This article cited privacy consultant Josh Bryant and helped draft the bill, saying, “We made significant changes. All AI items are gone. All biometric items are gone. This amendment gives the bill a 15-page good haircut.” This amendment has removed “a significant portion based on the section on legal basis for processing, including the terms of processing of personal data.” The only requested change that is not permitted is to include a “treatment period” of 60 days prior to enforcement.
Arkansas’ Digital Liability, Safety and Trust Act is modelled under Texas’ Data Privacy Act and borrows the language from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, critics said that inclusion of language in AI and biometrics is unprecedented and would make the nation an outlier in terms of privacy law severity.
“The only states of the 19 states today are the only states with comprehensive data privacy laws, an outlier for others,” said Renzo Soto, executive director of Technet. Soto says Kaifornia’s laws have led to “large and large costs of business.”
However, AI provisions may still survive as Republican Sen. Clint Penzo, sponsoring the bill, is considering splitting it.
Last week, a US District Court judge settled Arkansas’ proposed age guarantee law, calling it a free speech and hand hatch job.
Article Topics
Arkansas | Biometric Data | Biometric Data Privacy | Law | US
