The Vermont House has passed an updated version of a consumer protection bill that targets telemarketers and data brokers.
The House approved S.72 in a voice vote Friday. The Senate will now decide whether to accept the changes or appoint a committee of conference to negotiate a final version.
The Senate’s version of S.72 specifically targeted telemarketers and would require them to provide accurate identification to the people they call. The House has added language to form a working group to develop regulations for data brokers.
Data brokers are firms that collect, analyze, package and sell to third parties information about people who are not their customers. Popular examples are LexisNexis and PeekYou, which journalists and lawyers often use for research.
But the Vermont attorney general’s office has said there is a much broader data broker industry that is largely unregulated, and that some of those data brokers may collect people’s personal information and sell it to criminals.
The AG’s office sought to be the first to regulate data brokers by requiring them to register with the Department of Financial Regulation, among other things. That proposal has now been scaled back.
The House’s version of S.72 would require the commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation and the attorney general to submit a recommendation for regulation to the relevant House and Senate committees by Dec. 15.
