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Virginia bans sale of geolocation data

https://www.hunton.com/privacy-and-cybersecurity-law-blog/virginia-bans-sale-of-geolocation-data
155•toomuchtodo•1h ago

Comments

toomuchtodo•1h ago
Bill: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/SB338/text/SB338

> Virginia follows Maryland and Oregon in banning the sale of geolocation data. Both Maryland and Oregon more broadly define “sale” to mean the exchange of personal data “for monetary or other valuable consideration.” Virginia joins several other states that have recently proposed legislation with similar bans, including California, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington State. The legislative activity follows regulatory scrutiny on the sale of geolocation data, including the California Attorney General’s investigation into the location data industry in March 2025, and a 2024 FTC settlement banning a data broker from selling geolocation data.

(i could not find a state legislation tracker regarding this type of legislation, please feel free to drop it in a reply if you find one!)

kevin_thibedeau•23m ago
Funny how two states with a large number of elected officials living in them opt for privacy first.
toomuchtodo•21m ago
Every state has elected officials in them. One could buy their geolocation data until they pass laws prohibiting the practice. "You can just do things."
janalsncm•55m ago
Note that this article is from April and the ban went into effect July 1.
nekusar•47m ago
So, instead you buy a "custom computer", and the data is completely free!

Its like how FLOCK gets around pesky data laws. The devices coat a lot, but the software dashboard access is "Completely free*"

fastball•42m ago
Is that what Flock does?
hydrogen7800•38m ago
I can't find it so it's probably just a myth, but I recall hearing about "free beer with purchase of food" at bars during prohibition. However, I think it was more than just the sale that was prohibited.
colechristensen•36m ago
I've been to bars that required you to buy a bowl of popcorn or some such in order to abide by their restrictive liquor license which only allowed sale with food.
VBprogrammer•32m ago
I used to regularly go to a comedy show on the site of an old brewery in Wandsworth. The comedy cost £20 but the beer was free. Apparently the site was the oldest continuous used brewery in Europe and the head brewer decided to keep the record going after the site was sold to a property development company. However, there was a prohibition against competition and licensing issues meaning they couldn't charge for beer.
Cycl0ps•28m ago
peter303•38m ago
NYTimes article a few years ago on how car insurance companies were using such data. Tracking sudden stoos, driving at night, driving faster than 80 mph, etc.
baranul•28m ago
Exactly. Exchanging private and personal user data without consent and without users being aware of it, for their profits.
thephyber•7m ago
It’s important to understand that in the USA, data is owned by the collector (eg. The app or SaaS who generated it), not the person who is described by it.

Until this legal regime changes, we will constantly be playing whack-a-mole with laws like this.

dv_dt•29m ago
So let's say a Delaware incorporated company sells location data that happens to be collected in Virginia, but its sold from the corporation with no operations in Virginia. What happens? On the other hand us-east-1 is in Virginia with who knows how many payment processing servers running.
b40d-48b2-979e•17m ago
The same thing that happens in court cases across state lines. It goes to one of the jurisdictions in a lawsuit unless it qualifies for diversity jurisdiction and goes to a federal court.
raychis•29m ago
Honestly, it’s wild that selling people’s precise location data was ever treated like a normal business model.

We already know massive data harvesting has happened. Laws like this are just the bare minimum for catching up.

Would be nice if they could bring in laws that would punish these companies out of existence, but I doubt it.

danielrmay•28m ago
A good start. From 2024: "A company allegedly tracked people’s visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states and provided that data for one of the largest anti-abortion ad campaigns in the nation, according to an investigation" - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/13/planned-parenthood-...
petercooper•10m ago
I was intrigued, because even a broad location given for an IP address is "geolocation data", but the law says "precise geolocation data" which limits it to device-reported data, I assume.
mathgeek•7m ago
It likely fits the definition of precise location data that you can configure on mobile settings (it's a finer grained option you can enable when sharing your location).
Raines Law in that late 1800s put restrictions on the sale of alcohol in NY on Sundays. Bartenders used a loophole of the drinks being served with a meal to get around it.

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