Colorado is now the 3rd US state with modern privacy legislation, with a twist

This past week, the Colorado legislature passed the “Colorado Privacy Act”, which makes Colorado the 3rd US state with modern privacy legislation, following the CCPA in California and the CDPA in Virginia. It will start going into effect about 24 months from now.

Its provisions are similar to California’s and Virginia’s, except for this one, which goes substantially further:

A CONTROLLER THAT PROCESSES PERSONAL DATA FOR PURPOSES OF TARGETED ADVERTISING OR THE SALE OF PERSONAL DATA SHALL ALLOW CONSUMERS TO EXERCISE THE RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA CONCERNING THE CONSUMER FOR PURPOSES OF TARGETED ADVERTISING OR THE SALE OF PERSONAL DATA … BY CONTROLLERS THROUGH A USER-SELECTED UNIVERSAL OPT-OUT MECHANISM THAT MEETS THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ESTABLISHED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL…

In other words, Do Not Track – or something very much like it – is back in Colorado, and ignoring the setting, like companies did widely when Do Not Track was created, is not an option any more. The technical details will need to be figured out between now and when this provision goes into effect, which two and a half years away. So plenty of time to get this right.

Progress! Which US state is next? The IAPP has a great chart showing the state of privacy legislation in states around the US.

Here is the full text of the Colorado bill.