Nevada Legislature Expands the Opt-Out of Sale Right for State Consumers

On May 25, 2021, the Nevada Legislature enacted SB 260, the amendment to the opt-out of sale of personal information statute, expanding the opt-out right enjoyed by the state consumers.   The bill has been sent to Nevada Governor for his approval.

The Nevada opt-out statute (SB 220) was originally enacted in May of 2019.  The statute, in turn, amended Nevada’s statutory scheme which regulates privacy and security of personal information collected by the operators of commercial websites and online services (“operators”).

SB 220 defines “sale” as the exchange of “covered information” for monetary consideration by the operator to a person for that person to license or sell the covered information to additional persons.  See Nev. SB 220, Sec. 1.6(1).  “Covered [personal] information” under Nevada law includes (i) first and last name; (ii) home address; (iii) email address; (iv) telephone number; (v) social security number; (vi) an identifier that allows a specific person to be contacted physically or online; and (v) any other information concerning a person collected through the Internet website or online service and maintained by the operator in combination with the identifier in a form that makes the information personally identifiable.  See Nev. Rev. Stat. § 603A.320.

Thus, the Nevada law only covers actual sales of personal information to data brokers or similar organizations.  A sale of information to an organization that might use it to directly target the consumers or for analytics or research purposes will fall outside the scope of the law.

By comparison, the California Consumer Privacy Act defines the term “sale” much broader as “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.”  Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(t)(1).

The newly-passed SB 260 will amend the definition of “sale” to “the exchange of covered information for monetary consideration by an operator or data broker to another person.”  Thus, although this definition is not as broad the definition of “sale” under the CCPA, it no longer is limited to sale of personal information to data brokers.  Accordingly, the opt-out right will apply to certain transfers of data that were previously outside the scope of the statute.

SB 260 also contains new requirements for “data brokers.”  A “data broker” is defined as a “person whose primary business is purchasing covered information about consumers with whom the person does not have a direct relationship and who reside in [Nevada] from operators or other data brokers and making sales of such covered information.”  Under SB 260, consumers will be able to submit opt-out of sale requests directly to the data brokers, and the brokers, in turn, will be prohibited from making sales of any covered information about the consumer that the broker has already purchased or will purchase in the future.

Unless vetoed by the Governor, SB 260 will go into effect on October 1, 2021.

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