New Jersey follows in California’s footsteps with legislative initiatives on privacy.

The main proposed law (bill A-4902), will require commercial websites and online service operators to give customers:

  • a description of the personal information collected
  • a way to prevent the disclosure of personal information to third parties
  • a description of the information
  • an email address or phone number for requesting information
  • upon request from an individual, information on all disclosures of his data within the past year
  • a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link to a page that would allow customers to opt out of the disclosure of their personal data

Here’s what the chairman of the state’s Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has to say about the legislation:

“Should this happen at the federal level? Absolutely. We would want to see these protections at the federal level, but we are not seeing that … Until they do, New Jersey is going to do everything we can to protect New Jersey residents,”  said Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex), who chairs the committee and is sponsoring four of the bills on the agenda. Additional bills cover GPS data, student data and cybersecurity.

Details from NJ Spotlight.