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New bill would treat neural data as especially sensitive; researchers, clinicians press for protections
Summary
Witnesses urged the Joint Committee to add specific protections for neural/brain data, citing consumer neurotechnology headbands and earbuds that already collect medical‑grade signals outside HIPAA or FDA oversight.
A separate group of witnesses pressed the committee to treat neural data as a distinct, highly sensitive category requiring explicit statutory protection.
Physicians and neurotechnology experts described a nascent but fast‑growing consumer market for non‑implantable brain‑computer interfaces — headbands and earbud sensors that measure electrical brain activity — and warned that those devices generate medical‑grade signals that fall outside HIPAA protections when sold as consumer wellness products. Dr. Sean Pazowski, a neurologist and clinical researcher, and representatives of the NeuroRights Foundation said the same sorts of neural features that clinicians use to diagnose epilepsy or other neurologic conditions can be collected by consumer devices and aggregated by private vendors.
Witnesses recommended a new statute (filed in the session as H103) that would prohibit sale of neural data, require affirmative consent for any transfer, and impose strong disclosure and deletion obligations on companies. Neurotech advocates said the measures would protect sensitive information (mental‑health signals, cognitive biomarkers and thought‑decoding risks) while allowing legitimate research and medical uses under proper regulatory and clinical safeguards.
Industry witnesses cautioned that definitions must be precise to avoid unduly constraining medically beneficial products, and committee staff asked for follow‑up materials explaining how neural signals are collected, which data elements are uniquely revealing, and how proposed prohibitions would interact with research and clinical uses.
Committee members requested written technical comments and examples of drafting approaches used by other states and jurisdictions; no committee vote was recorded.
