Keypoint: It was another busy week with Virginia lawmakers advancing three bills and new consumer and children’s privacy bills introduced in multiple states.
Below is the fourth weekly update on the status of proposed state privacy legislation in 2025. As always, the contents provided below are time-sensitive and subject to change.
Table of Contents
- What’s New
- AI Bills
- Bill Tracker Chart
1. What’s New
With the close of its session now less than three weeks away, there were several developments with Virginia bills last week.
First, three bills continued to advance. In the Senate, SB 854 and SB 1023 advanced out of committee are now on the Senate floor. SB 854 amends the VCDPA to require social media platforms that provide an addictive feed to use commercially reasonable methods to determine that the user is not a minor (under 18) or obtain verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed to the minor. SB 1023 amends the VCDPA to prohibit controllers from selling or offering for sale precise geolocation data.
Meanwhile, in the House, HB 2268 was reported out of the Communications, Technology and Innovation committee and referred to Appropriations. The bill establishes a new division within the department of law to oversee and enforce laws governing cybersecurity, data privacy, and the use of AI.
On the other hand, four bills stalled. The Communications subcommittee of the House Communications, Technology and Innovation committee recommended laying three bills on the table: HB 2043, HB 2250, and HB 1624. Among other things, HB 2043 amends the VCDPA to require disclosures around consumers’ user-generated content. HB 2250 amends the VCDPA to require disclosure around generative AI training data sets and mandates that controllers recognize universal opt out mechanisms. HB 1624 prohibits social media platforms with knowledge that a user is under 18 from using an addictive feed unless the platform obtains verifiable parental consent.
Finally, SB 783 died in committee. The bill would have amended the VCDPA to require certain controllers and processors to obtain verified parental consent prior to registering any child under 18 with the controller’s or processor’s product or service or before collecting, using, or disclosing such child’s personal data.
According to Virginia’s legislative calendar, as of February 5, each house may only consider legislation and amendments of the other house.
Turning to consumer data privacy bills, Washington Representative Shelley Kloba was among a group of lawmakers to introduce HB 1671. The bill is reportedly based on EPIC and Consumer Reports’ model state privacy bill. Representative Kloba has introduced consumer data privacy bills in prior sessions. The bill is scheduled for a February 4 committee hearing.
In Tennessee, companion bills were introduced to amend the state’s existing consumer data privacy law to add authorized agent and universal opt out mechanism provisions (SB 663 and HB 630).
Iowa lawmakers also are considering a bill to amend the state’s existing consumer data privacy law. SF 143 changes the definition of child to be under 18 (not 13) and expands the definition of sensitive data to include health data.
Finally, we are tracking two more Massachusetts data privacy bills – companion bills SD 2520 and HD 4073. There are now eight Massachusetts consumer data privacy bills on our tracker.
Moving to children’s privacy bills, lawmakers introduced three more bills last week. In South Dakota, SB 180 requires age verification before an individual may access an application from an online application store. Pennsylvania (SB 22) and South Carolina (S 268) lawmakers also filed bills to regulate social media platforms’ interaction with minors.
Finally, in Montana, Senator Zolnikov’s SB 163 unanimously passed the Senate on January 28 and is now with the House. The bill amends the state’s Genetic Information Privacy Act to add neural data.
2. AI Bills
- Updates on AI bills filed in numerous states, including significant developments with bills in Virginia, Washington, Montana, and New Jersey.
- A summary of the committee hearing on New Mexico’s algorithmic discrimination bill.
- Our latest AI state bill tracker chart. We are now tracking over 200 state AI bills filed across 36 states.
- Our special feature of the week – a summary of President Trump’s recent AI-related regulatory actions.
3. Bill Tracker Chart
For more information on all of the privacy bills introduced to date, including links to the bills, bill status, last action, and hearing dates, please see our bill tracker chart.
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