Experts urge Vermont lawmakers to adopt substantive data‑minimization and enforceable remedies

A joint hearing of the Vermont House Commerce and Economic Development Committee and the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs brought together privacy scholars, industry experts and journalists who urged lawmakers to pursue privacy rules that go beyond notice‑and‑choice and include substantive limits on data collection and meaningful enforcement.

Neil Richards, Koch Distinguished Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, told the committees that "privacy matters because information about people ... confers power over those people," and argued that ordinary consumers cannot protect themselves through lengthy privacy policies. Richards said the legislature should place the burden of protection on companies and called for two core features in any effective law: substantive restrictions on dangerous data practices and meaningful remedies, including…