Are you ready for the next set of US state privacy laws going into effect? Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, and New Hampshire are effective January 1, and New Jersey’s law go into effect two weeks later (January 15).

These states will join California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Virginia as states with “comprehensive privacy laws.” What should businesses do as the ball drops in 2024? An initial stop is our interactive tool that tracks the laws’ obligations. Highlights are also listed below:

• Review consumer notices. For the most part, businesses’ notice obligations mirror the obligations in other states. Each state requires businesses to provide notice to individuals about their information collection, use, and disclosure practices. There are some slight differences in content like, New Jersey’s law requires businesses to include the date the notice was last updated. 
• Ensure that there are processes in place for consumer choices and rights. Under the upcoming laws, consumers have a variety of familiar rights. These include the right of access, correction, deletion, and portability. Each state also prescribes a timeline for responding (all states require a response in 45 days, while New Jersey and Iowa allow 60 and 90 days, respectively). Additionally, the new state laws allow consumers to opt-out of certain digital advertising, something to keep in mind if your organization has been taking a jurisdiction-specific approach.
• Update vendor contracts. At this point, most businesses are familiar with contractual requirements for vendors. The new state laws don’t add into the mix any unfamiliar provisions.

Putting it Into Practice: When we return from the upcoming holidays, keep in mind that there will now be 14 US states with “comprehensive” laws in effect. Three more (Minnesota, Tennessee and Maryland) are already set to take effect in 2025, and three (Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island) in 2026. We expect this number to grow, with more states passing similar laws next year.

Sharilyn Clark also contributed to this post

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