The New York Privacy Act goes even farther than California's privacy legislation

In 2015, California enacted groundbreaking privacy legislation and in 2018, the state took up the matter again with even tougher rules that have been fought tooth-and-nail by Big Tech companies, many of whom are headquartered in the state.

Not to be outdone, New York State Senator Kevin Thomas introduced The New York Privacy Act in May, which binds over all tech companies to serve as "data fiduciaries," with a legal requirement to use your data in ways that benefit you -- and not ways that benefit themselves at your expense (lawyers, doctors and other professionals have similar fiduciary duties); specifically, companies must not use your data in ways that would be "unexpected and highly offensive to a reasonable consumer."

Facebook hates this and reportedly told Thomas that it would force them to leave New York State (Facebook denies they told him this).

Thomas believes he can get his bill through the state senate this summer, and is seeking a co-sponsor in the state assembly.

But the New York bill, as its currently written, departs from the California model in significant ways. While the California law leaves enforcement to the states attorney general, the New York Privacy Act would give New Yorkers the right to sue companies directly over privacy violations, possibly setting up a barrage of individual lawsuits. Industry groups vehemently opposed a similar provisionalso known as a private right of actionin California, and they succeeded in driving it out of the bill when it was finally signed into law last year.