Key point: Last week, Maine’s consumer data privacy bill stalled in the House, while Kentucky’s legislature passed a bill to amend the commonwealth’s consumer data privacy law.

Below is the 12th update on the status of proposed state privacy legislation in 2026. This post covers updates on proposed bills dealing with consumer data privacy, children’s privacy, biometric privacy, data brokers, and consumer health data privacy. As always, the contents provided below are time-sensitive and subject to change.

What’s New

With many legislatures taking time off for the holidays, it was an uncharacteristically quiet week. The big story last week was Maine’s consumer data privacy bill reportedly stalling on a procedural vote in the House. Meanwhile, Kentucky’s legislature passed an amendment to the commonwealth’s existing consumer data privacy bill to add “automatic content recognition” as an element of sensitive data.

Turning to children’s privacy bills, a New York Senate Committee advanced the Stop Online Predators Act.

Two legislatures — Georgia and South Dakota — closed last week. Looking at the month ahead, notable legislatures that are set to close include Alabama (April 16), Kansas (April 10), Kentucky (April 15), Maine (April 15), Nebraska (April 17), and Tennessee (April 24). In particular, the Alabama legislature has been considering a consumer data privacy bill that previously passed the House and was voted out of a Senate committee, but has not moved since early March.

More details on those bills, plus updates on all bill movements last week, are included in the below post.

Consumer Data Privacy

Maine’s consumer data privacy bill (LD 1822) reportedly stalled on a procedural vote in the House. According to the Bangor Daily News, “[f]ive key Democrats flipped their votes late Thursday to deal a potentially fatal blow to a sweeping data privacy bill that has motivated a strong opposition effort from Maine businesses of all sizes.”

Kentucky’s HB 692 passed the legislature and was delivered to the governor. The bill amends Kentucky’s consumer data privacy law to add “automatic content recognition” as a category of sensitive data. The bill defines automatic content recognition as “technology embedded or operating through a smart television or smart monitor with integrated internet connectivity and an operating system that identifies, in real time, the specific content displayed by analyzing audio or video fingerprints, including but not limited to content received through broadcast, cable, satellite, streaming services, or external inputs, through digital fingerprinting, watermark detection, or similar comparison techniques.”

Children’s Privacy

In New York, S 4609 was voted out of the Senate Internet and Technology Committee by a 6-1 vote. The bill establishes the Stop Online Predators Act.

Biometric Privacy

There were no updates for this category last week.

Data Broker

There were no updates for this category last week.

Consumer Health Data Privacy

There were no updates for this category last week.

Other

Ohio lawmakers are now considering a bill (HB 807) that restricts the selling of sensitive data.