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Montana committee advances privacy bill tightening protections for minors and clarifying exemptions
Summary
Senate Bill 297, an update to Montana's consumer privacy law that tightens protections for minors and refines financial-exemption language, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee as amended; sponsor said the bill builds on last session's bipartisan privacy law and adds data protection assessment requirements for higher-risk processing of minors' data.
Senate Bill 297, a follow-up to Montana's consumer-privacy framework enacted last session, advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee after the panel approved an amendment and then the bill as amended.
The sponsor (unnamed in the hearing record) said SB 297 narrows exemptions for financial institutions, expands the definition of sensitive personal data to include Social Security numbers, driver's license and financial-account numbers, passwords and biometric identifiers, and strengthens requirements for handling minors' data. The sponsor described the measure as bipartisan and said it builds on last year's national-standard privacy law that gave Montanans rights to access, correct, delete and opt out of online data processing.
Key provisions discussed in committee included a requirement for controllers to implement heightened protections when there is a "heightened risk of harm to minors," and a data-protection assessment requirement tied to those risks. The sponsor also emphasized the law's online scope: the bill governs online consumer Internet data and the universal opt-out mechanism passed last session allows consumers to toggle an opt-out at the browser level rather than individually on each site.
Committee members asked whether the bill protects emancipated minors and whether smaller entities could be used as loopholes. The sponsor said the measure is intended to further protect minors, and that numeric thresholds for covered entities (text cites 50,000 customers or a revenue threshold) are designed to avoid imposing undue burdens on startups while capturing larger processors. The sponsor acknowledged the thresholds could be revisited (a lower-number amendment was described as being requested by the sponsor).
Senator Ricky moved and the committee passed amendment SB297.001.001 by voice vote (proxies recorded). The committee then moved to a roll-call/voice vote and passed SB 297 as amended, with proxies recorded for Senators Mansella and Olson.
What happens next: With committee passage, SB 297 will proceed to the Senate floor as amended. The committee record shows staff printed an amendment during the hearing and members signaled potential further adjustments to numeric thresholds.
