Vermont's governor has vetoed a broad data privacy bill that would have been one of the strongest in the country to crack down on companies' use of online personal data by letting consumers file civil lawsuits against companies that break certain privacy rules.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott said in his veto message late Thursday that the legislation would have made Vermont "a national outlier and more hostile than any other state to many businesses and non-profits."
"I appreciate this provision is narrow in its impact, but it will still negatively impact mid-sized employers, and is generating significant fear and concern among many small businesses," he wrote.
The legislation would have prohibited the sale of sensitive data, such as social security and driver's license numbers, as well as financial information and health data. It also would have set meaningful limits on the amount of personal data that companies can collect and use, More