Maine Web Privacy Law Is Scheduled to Go into Effect on July 1 Amid an Ongoing Constitutional Challenge by Telecom Trade Groups

Maine web privacy law is scheduled to go into effect in less than a month on July 1, 2020, but remains subject to an ongoing litigation challenge by several telecom trade groups.

Signed into law in June of 2019, An Act to Protect the Privacy of Online Customer Information was meant to restore broadband privacy protections issued by the Federal Trade Commission in 2016 but subsequently stripped away by Congress the following year.

The law applies to providers of broadband Internet access service and protects the personal information of their current or former customers, including personally identifying information and information about their service including web browsing history, application usage history, precise geolocation information, financial information, health information, information pertaining to the customer’s children, device identifiers, content of the customer’s communications, and the origin/destination IP addresses.

The law has three key compliance requirements:

• Customer Personal Information – a provider may not use, disclose, sell or permit access to customer personal information except with the customer’s express affirmative consent or under certain exceptions such as for purposes “necessary” to providing users internet access, marketing/advertising of the provider’s own product, compliance with a lawful court order, billing/payment, fraud protection, and the provision of geolocation information in certain emergency circumstances.

• Security – the law requires providers to implement reasonable measures to protect customer personal information from unauthorized use, disclosure, or access.

• Disclosures – the law requires providers to offer a clear, conspicuous and nondeceptive notice on their website and at the point of sale concerning the provider’s obligations and the consumer’s rights under the law.

In their lawsuit, the trade groups argue that the Act violates carriers’ free speech rights by restricting their ability to collect and use consumer data and that it wrongly subjects internet service providers to tougher privacy standards than search engines, social networking platforms, and other “edge providers.”  The Maine Attorney General, joined by the ACLU and other amici groups, defended the statute’s constitutionality arguing that the law is narrowly drawn to advance the state’s interests in protecting consumer’s privacy, freedom of expression, and security.

Once the Maine Act to Protect the Privacy of Online Customer Information law goes into effect next month, it will join the California Consumer Privacy Act and Nevada SB 220 in providing new privacy rights to the U.S. consumers.  We will continue to follow the developments in the legal challenge to the law and will report them in our blog.

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