Why don’t we have meaningful privacy laws in the US? While we haven’t been able to pass federal privacy legislation, many states have managed to pass laws protecting our data and establishing some basic privacy rights. Vermont House Representative Monique Priestley led a Herculean effort to pass privacy legislation in her state last year. While managing to get a solid bill through the House and Senate, the bill was ultimately vetoed by the governor and the Senate failed to override it. But along the way, Monique learned valuable lessons about dealing with Big Tech lobbyists. Today we’ll follow the journey of the Vermont Data Privacy Act of 2024 and what lessons we should learn for future attempts at privacy legislation.

Interview Notes

• Monique Priestley: https://mepriestley.com/ 
• Vermont State Representative site: https://priestleyvt.com/ 
• Vermont Committee Zoom call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfvAteuwRCA 
• Age Appropriate Design Code: https://epic.org/epic-applauds-passage-of-vermont-age-appropriate-design-code/ 
• Big Tech Tried to Kill My State’s Privacy Bill. Here’s What I Learned. https://www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-tried-to-kill-my-states-privacy-bill-heres-what-i-learned/ 
• The man quietly rewriting American privacy law https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/17/andrew-kingman-data-privacy-lobbying-00179630 

Further Info

• My book: https://fdsd.me/book 
• My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 
• Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support 
• Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 
• Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

• 0:00:00: Intro
• 0:01:36: Interview setup
• 0:05:45: How did you get into privacy politics?
• 0:08:44: Who drafts the initial bill?
• 0:12:25: How are initial bills modified during this process?
• 0:17:08: When and how do lobbyists get involved?
• 0:22:34: Are lobbyists transparent about who they represent?
• 0:30:42: What are the most controversial elements of a privacy bill?
• 0:34:16: How are privacy laws limited by scope?
• 0:39:11: Why is the privacy right of action so important?
• 0:43:37: How do lobbyists kill privacy bills?
• 0:49:05: Do legislators collaborate across states?
• 0:55:19: How did the Vermont privacy bill get killed?
• 0:57:55: What are your key takeaways from this experience?
• 1:02:12: What’s the current status of privacy legislation?
• 1:04:57: How can we help?
• 1:06:57: Wrap-up
• 1:09:38: Patron podcast preview
• 1:10:18: Looking ahead