Alessandra Swanson Discusses Recent State Data Privacy Laws with LegalTech News

Winston & Strawn Partner and co-chair of the firm’s Global Privacy and Data Security Practice Alessandra Swanson was quoted in a LegalTech News article where she discussed the acceleration of data privacy laws, including the recent bills in Montana and Tennessee. These bills follow an increasingly popular data privacy standard modeled after Virginia, which could point towards a possibly unified approach to data privacy regulation among the states.

“While it’s jarring to see so many new privacy laws that are being passed and signed into law, it also feels like we’re moving toward a . . . de facto standard that companies can use to create a nationwide compliance program,” said Alessandra.

Both the Tennessee Information Protection Act and Montana’s Consumer Data Privacy Act grant consumers the right to access, correct, and delete personal data, among other rights. The Tennessee bill will also grant the right to opt out of the sale of personal information, and the Montana bill will allow consumers to opt out of processing related to sale, profiling or targeted advertising.

Alessandra noted, “it’s a bit surprising that this particular group of states are the first to pass their privacy laws. But when you look at what’s in them, it’s a very reasonable standard that I think does really go far in protecting privacy rights, but just in a very reasonable way, as opposed to the California standard which has been fairly difficult for companies to implement. So I wouldn’t be shocked to see more red states pass privacy laws in the Virginia style.”

Read the full article.