With Congress stalled on protecting consumer privacy online, California has taken matters into its own hands: On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee in Sacramento is expected to consider a new bill that promises to put a little more power into consumers’ hands.
By now, many people are used to those little boxes that pop up whenever they visit a website for the first time. The boxes prompt the user to accept cookies, which then track and sell users’ data. People can also reject cookies, or pick and choose the information they’re open to sharing.
Those boxes come courtesy of a couple of privacy laws passed in California, along with other protections like a data broker registry in the state.