One June 6th, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 262, known as the “Florida Digital Bill of Rights” (FDBR). The law will go into effect on July 1, 2024 giving businesses some time to prepare.
What does this mean for your Florida business? The law may mean different things to different businesses depending on if you are a “Big Tech” firm or not. For the purposes of this blog post, we will assume if you are reading this, you do not work for Google, Amazon or one of the Big Tech companies that are defined as “controllers” of data and have a different set of standards. For most, it simply expands the definition of “personal information” in Florida’s existing Information Protection Act, Chapter 501.171, to include (i) “biometric data,” which includes fingerprints, voiceprints, retina scans and other unique biological patterns used to identify specific individuals, and (ii) information regarding an individual’s geolocation.
As a consumer, this law affords considerably more protection than existing Florida data protection statutes. Consumers now have the ability to confirm whether controllers are processing their personal data and to access that data, correct inaccuracies in their data, ask controllers to delete all their data, and opt out of the sale or processing of their data. Florida’s Department of Legal Affairs has jurisdiction over enforcement, and is permitted, but not required, to afford offending companies a 45-day safe harbor period to cure violations. The state government can impose hefty fines for violations, up to $50,000 per violation, with tripled penalties for certain violations, including those that involve known children.
If your business collects personally identifiable information, call our experts today to discuss how best to safeguard that information and become compliant with FDBR. Email us at info@coldencompany.com or call us at (888) 600-4560.