Vermont committee debates safe-harbor alternative for H.342 to protect public servants' personal information

The Vermont House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development on March 25 reviewed a revised amendment to H.342, a bill intended to protect the personal information of certain public servants, and agreed to delay action for two legislative days to allow further conversations with the administration, the attorney general's office and other stakeholders.

The amendment, explained to the committee by Rick Segal, legislative counsel, would keep a private right of action for covered persons but add a limited safe harbor for data brokers that cure after being served in a civil suit. Segal told the committee that relying solely on injunctive relief would likely leave covered people without effective remedies because injunctions can be costly to pursue, difficult to win and unattractive for private counsel. "For an injunction, the standard is you must be harmed in a way that money can't help you," Segal said, adding that the cost of filing an injunction (about $700) and the difficulty of proving irreparable harm make injunctions a weak sole remedy.

The amendment would require a data broker that receives a notice from a covered person to stop disclosing protected information within 15 days. If the broker continues to disclose after that notice period, the covered person could bring a civil action in Superior Court seeking damages, injunctive relief, reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. The amendment creates a narrow safe harbor: if a data broker ceases disclosure within 15…