On May 24, 2021, Senator Thomas’ S6701 – the proposed New York Privacy Act, had its third reading before the Senate.  As recounted in its Legislative Intent section:  “Algorithms quietly make decisions with critical consequences for New York consumers, often with no human accountability.  Behavioral advertising generates profits by turning people into products and their activity into assets. New York consumers deserve more notice and more control over their data and their digital privacy.”  

To that end, the proposed law will provide New York consumers with certain new rights, including  “clear notice of how their data is being used, processed and shared; the ability  to  access  and obtain a copy of their data in a commonly used electronic format, with the ability to transfer  it  between  services;  the ability  to  correct  inaccurate  data and to delete their data; and the ability to challenge certain automated decisions.”  

If passed, this bill will become one of the strongest – if not strongest, consumer privacy law in the country and deserves to be carefully watched.  Even though this bill may still be lacking a progressive Right of Compensation, the proposed law includes a private right of action coupled with a consumer agency enforcement mechanism – a groundbreaking backstop that will protect consumers much more so than those few currently enacted consumer privacy laws lacking in a private right of action.