On Tuesday this week, Montana’s new consumer protections law took effect, joining many other states with similar consumer privacy rights legislation.

The Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act (MCDPA) provides residents with the right to access or obtain copies of their data collected by online companies, the right to request deletion of personal information maintained by

State privacy laws are changing rapidly in the U.S. Here are summaries of seven new state laws that have been enacted and go into effect in the next few years. We anticipate that more state legislatures will continue to enact privacy laws to protect consumers due to the absence of a federal privacy law.

Under each of the acts summarized below, consumers will have the right to access their personal data, the right to correct inaccurate data, the right to data portability, the right to have their data deleted, and the right to opt out of targeted advertising of personal data. Businesses will be required to practice purpose limitation, maintain data security, get consumer consent for data processing, and complete regular data impact assessments. Businesses will be barred from discriminating against consumers who exercise their rights under the law and will be required to secure data processing agreements with service providers. Similarly, these laws each exclude financial institutions or their affiliates that are governed by, or personal data that is collected, processed, sold, or disclosed in accordance with, Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ; state bodies/agencies; nonprofit organizations; institutions of higher education; national securities associations registered with the SEC; and covered entities or business associates as defined in the privacy regulations of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).Continue Reading Seven States Have Upcoming Privacy Laws 

Tennessee, Montana, Iowa, and Indiana have each recently passed a consumer privacy statute in recent weeks. These laws follow the same trend started by California’s Consumer Privacy Act by granting consumers the right to know whether a company is processing their data; the right to access that data, obtain a copy, and to have it