AUGUSTA, Maine — A day after the Maine House of Representatives approved it, the Senate defeated Wednesday a high-profile proposal to strengthen data privacy protections for Mainers.
The bill from Rep. Maggie O’Neil, D-Saco, went down in a 15-18 vote in the Senate on the last scheduled day of the session as legislators seek to finish their work this week.
O’Neil’s proposal received months of debate and heavy lobbying. It initially sought to give Maine stronger data privacy protections than California and its nation-leading regulations before Democrats on the Judiciary Committee amended it in a compromise that took out the ability of residents to sue companies for violating their rights.
Still, the measure, similar to a stalled proposal in Congress, was viewed as stronger than a competing bill from Assistant Senate Minority Leader Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield. Keim’s measure was closer to laws in Connecticut and other states that are seen as friendlier to Big Tech firms.
O’Neil’s measure allowed the attorney general to take action against violators and has stricter “data minimization” standards that limit what companies can collect, with exemptions for small businesses and several types of firms. It exempts those that control or process the personal data of fewer than 100,000 customers, excluding data used solely for completing payment transactions, or to companies processing data for fewer than 10,000 customers and deriving more than 20 percent of gross revenue from selling personal data.
O’Neil said she was “disappointed” with the Senate vote and how “L.L. Bean worked to kill the bill,” referring to how the famed Maine retailer opposed her measure. O’Neil noted the Pew Research Center found bipartisan support last year among Americans for more regulations on what companies can do with customers’ personal information.
“Ultimately, L.L. Bean was more interested in carrying water for Facebook than in meaningful protections for Mainers,” O’Neil said in an interview. “That’s not the company that my mom worked for growing up.”
Privacy advocates and Attorney General Aaron Frey backed O’Neil’s bill, while Big Tech and various Maine businesses opposed it. Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO Quincy Hentzel said last week that “even with an exemption for small businesses, the critical tools small businesses use will no longer be at their disposal.”
Wednesday’s Senate vote did not split neatly along party lines. Seven Democrats opposed O’Neil’s bill, while Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, was the lone Republican to support it.
Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, urged her colleagues to “take the heat” out of the debate and support “extensive data privacy protections,” while Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, opposed the stricter protections over not wanting to “experiment” with Maine’s economy and businesses.
