Committee discusses H211 data-broker definitions, alignment with S71 and an edtech registry

The Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs committee turned to data‑privacy legislation on May 27, weighing whether to align H211 (the data‑broker bill) with S71, which the House passed with broader Connecticut-style updates and data-deletion provisions.

Rick, identified as representing the Office of State Counsel, and Cameron Wood (Legislative Council) told the committee the central drafting problem is consistency of definitions across chapter 62: the consumer definition in H211 as passed by the House applies chapter‑wide (including security‑breach notices), while S71 introduces deletion and other rights that would apply to controllers. Counsel recommended limiting changes to the data‑broker subchapter where possible to avoid unintended impacts on breach-notice and other statutory programs.

Members discussed three core areas:

- "Consumer." The House-passed draft defines a consumer as an individual acting in a personal, family or household capacity and excludes individuals acting in an employment or commercial context. Counsel proposed amending the data‑broker subchapter’s consumer definition so that employment/commercial communications are excluded for brokered personal information only, avoiding broader changes to the chapter.

- "Publicly available information" and categories of personal information. The House amendment (S71) includes several nonstandard exclusions (for collated public profiles, inferences and certain pre-sale disclosures) and biometric/genetic categories; the committee compared which items should appear in the data‑broker text and which should remain limited to S71.

- Edtech registry. The committee reviewed a provision requiring educational-technology providers that contract with schools or offer premium services to register with the Secretary of State and provide contact, privacy policy and contract information. Members raised concerns the registration requirement could sweep in many web services and asked for clarification on whether registration would be limited to providers with direct contracts with schools.

Committee members generally agreed not to attach S71 wholesale to H211 at this time. Several senators asked staff to produce a new draft that narrows any definitional changes to the data‑broker subchapter, to confer with institutions and the Secretary of State about edtech registration mechanics, and to reconvene for further consideration before floor action.

What comes next: staff will draft a revised H211 that aligns consumer and PI definitions within the data‑broker subchapter, solicit input from institutional stakeholders and the Secretary of State on edtech registration logistics, and consider S71’s broader changes separately.