SB3517 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 35732 LNS 65813 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB3517

Introduced 2/9/2024, by Sen. Sue Rezin

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act
30 ILCS 105/5.1015 new

Creates the Privacy Rights Act. Sets forth duties and obligations of businesses that collected consumers' personal information and sensitive personal information to keep such information private. Sets forth consumer rights in relation to the collected personal information and sensitive personal information, including the right to: delete personal information; correct inaccurate personal information; know what personal information is sold or shared and to whom; opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information; limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal information; and no retaliation for exercising any rights. Sets forth enforcement provisions. Creates the Consumer Privacy Fund. Allows the Attorney General to create rules to implement the Act. Establishes the Privacy Protection Agency. Includes provisions regarding remedies and fines for violations of the Act. Makes a conforming change in the State Finance Act.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning civil law.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Article 5. General

Section 5-1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Privacy Rights Act.

Section 5-5. Purpose and intent. In enacting this Act, it is the purpose and intent of the State to further protect consumers' rights, including the constitutional right of privacy. The implementation of this Act shall be guided by the following principles:

(1) Consumers should know who is collecting their personal information and that of their children, how it is being used, and to whom it is disclosed so that they have the information necessary to exercise meaningful control over businesses' use of their personal information and that of their children.

(2) Consumers should be able to control the use of their personal information, including limiting the use of their sensitive personal information, the unauthorized use or disclosure of which creates a heightened risk of harm to the consumer, and they should have meaningful options over how it is collected, used, and disclosed.

(3) Consumers should have access to their personal information and should be able to correct it, delete it, and take it with them from one business to another.

(4) Consumers or their authorized agents should be able to exercise these options through easily accessible self-serve tools.

(5) Consumers should be able to exercise these rights without being penalized for doing so.

(6) Consumers should be able to hold businesses accountable for failing to take reasonable precautions to protect their most sensitive personal information from hackers and security breaches.

(7) Consumers should benefit from businesses' use of their personal information.

(8) The privacy interests of employees and independent contractors should also be protected, taking into account the differences in the relationship between employees or independent contractors and businesses as compared to the relationship between consumers and businesses. This Act is not intended to interfere with the right to organize and collective bargaining under the federal National Labor Relations Act.

(9) Businesses should specifically and clearly inform consumers about how they collect and use personal information and how they can exercise their rights and choice.

(10) Businesses should only collect consumers' personal information for specific, explicit, and legitimate disclosed purposes and should not further collect, use, or disclose consumers' personal information for reasons incompatible with those purposes.

(11) Businesses should collect consumers' personal information only to the extent that it is relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is being collected, used, and shared.

(12) Businesses should provide consumers or their authorized agents with easily accessible means to allow consumers and their children to obtain their personal information, to delete it or correct it, to opt out of its sale and sharing across business platforms, services, businesses, and devices, and to limit the use of their sensitive personal information.

(13) Businesses should not penalize consumers for exercising these rights.

(14) Businesses should take reasonable precautions to protect consumers' personal information from a security breach.

(15) Businesses should be held accountable when they violate consumers' privacy rights, and the penalties should be higher when the violation affects children.

(16) The rights of consumers and the responsibilities of businesses should be implemented with the goal of strengthening consumer privacy while giving attention to the impact on business and innovation. Consumer privacy and the development of beneficial new products and services are not necessarily incompatible goals. Strong consumer privacy rights create incentives to innovate and develop new products that are privacy protective.

(17) Businesses and consumers should be provided with clear guidance about their responsibilities and rights.

(18) The law should place the consumer in a position to knowingly and freely negotiate with a business over the business' use of the personal information.

(19) The law should adjust to technological changes, help consumers exercise their rights, and assist businesses with compliance with the continuing goal of strengthening consumer privacy.

(20) The law should enable proconsumer new products and services and promote efficiency of implementation for business as long as the law does not compromise or weaken consumer privacy.

(21) The law should be amended, if necessary, to improve its operation, as long as the amendments do not compromise or weaken consumer privacy, while giving attention to the impact on business and innovation.

(22) Businesses should be held accountable for violating the law through vigorous administrative and civil enforcement.

(23) To the extent it advances consumer privacy and business compliance, the law should be compatible with privacy laws in other jurisdictions.

Section 5-10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Advertising and marketing" means a communication by a business or person acting on behalf of the business in any medium intended to induce a consumer to obtain goods, services, or employment.

"Agency" means the Privacy Protection Agency.

"Aggregate consumer information" means information that relates to a group or category of consumers, from which individual consumer identities have been removed, that is not linked or reasonably linkable to any consumer or household, including via a device. "Aggregate consumer information" does not include one or more individual consumer records that have been deidentified.

"Biometric information" means an individual's physiological, biological, or behavioral characteristics, including information pertaining to an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), that is used or is intended to be used singly or in combination with each other or with other identifying data, to establish individual identity. "Biometric information" includes, but is not limited to, imagery of the iris, retina, fingerprint, face, hand, palm, vein patterns, and voice recordings, from which an identifier template, such as a faceprint, a minutiae template, or a voiceprint, can be extracted, and keystroke patterns or rhythms, gait patterns or rhythms, and sleep, health, or exercise data that contain identifying information.

"Business" means:

(1) a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, corporation, association, or other legal entity that is organized or operated for the profit or financial benefit of its shareholders or other owners, that collects consumers' personal information, or on the behalf of which such information is collected and that determines the purposes and means of the processing of consumers' personal information, does business in this State, and satisfies one or more of the following thresholds:

(A) as of January 1 of the calendar year, had annual gross revenues in excess of $25,000,000 in the preceding calendar year;

(B) alone or in combination, annually, buys, sells, or shares the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households; or

(C) derives 50% or more of its annual revenues from selling or sharing consumers' personal information;

(2) any entity that controls or is controlled by a business and that shares common branding with the business and with whom the business shares consumers' personal information;

(3) a joint venture or partnership composed of businesses in which each business has at least a 40% interest; or

(4) a person that does business in this State, that is not covered by paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this definition and that voluntarily certifies to this Act that it is in compliance with, and agrees to be bound by, this Act.

"Business associate" has the meaning given to that term in Section 160.103 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

"Business controller information" means the name or names of the owner or owners, director, officer, or management employee of a business and the contact information, including a business title, for the owner or owners, director, officer, or management employee.

"Business purpose" means the use of personal information for the business's operational purposes, or other notified purposes, or for the service provider's or contractor's operational purposes, as long as the use of personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate to achieve the purpose for which the personal information was collected or processed or for another purpose that is compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected. "Business purposes" includes:

(1) auditing related to counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance with this specification and other standards;

(2) helping to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of the personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for these purposes;

(3) debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;

(4) short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, nonpersonalized advertising shown as part of a consumer's current interaction with the business, as long as the personal information is not disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about the consumer or otherwise alter the consumer's experience outside the current interaction with the business;

(5) performing services on behalf of the business, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing analytic services, providing storage, or providing similar services on behalf of the business;

(6) providing advertising and marketing services, except for cross-context behavioral advertising, to the consumer, as long as a service provider or contractor does not combine the personal information of consumers who opted-out that the service provider or contractor receives from, or on behalf of, the business with personal information that the service provider or contractor receives from, or on behalf of, another person or persons or collects from its own interaction with consumers;

(7) undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration; and

(8) undertaking activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by the business, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by the business.

"Collects", "collected", or "collection" means buying, renting, gathering, obtaining, receiving, or accessing any personal information pertaining to the consumer by any means. "Collects", "collected", or "collection" includes receiving information from the consumer, either actively or passively, or by observing the consumer's behavior.

"Commercial credit reporting agency" means any person who, for monetary fees, dues, or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, provides commercial credit reports to third parties.

"Commercial purposes" means to advance a person's commercial or economic interests, such as by inducing another person to buy, rent, lease, join, subscribe to, provide, or exchange products, goods, property, information, or services, or enabling or effecting, directly or indirectly, a commercial transaction.

"Common branding" means a shared name, service mark, or trademark that the average consumer would understand that 2 or more entities are commonly owned.

"Consent" means any freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of the consumer's wishes by which the consumer, the consumer's legal guardian, or a person who has power of attorney signifies agreement to the processing of personal information relating to the consumer for a narrowly defined particular purpose. "Consent" does not include acceptance of a general or broad terms of use, or similar document, that contains descriptions of personal information processing along with other, unrelated information, hovering over, muting, pausing, or closing a given piece of content, or an agreement obtained through use of dark patterns.

"Consumer" means a natural person who is a State resident, however identified, including by any unique identifier.

"Contractor" means a person to whom the business makes available personal information for a business purpose, under the written contract with the business, if the contract:

(1) prohibits the contractor from:

(A) selling or sharing the personal information;

(B) retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information for any purpose other than for the business purpose specified in the contract, including retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information for a commercial purpose other than the business purposes specified in the contract, or as otherwise permitted by this Act;

(C) retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information outside of the direct business relationship between the contractor and the business; and

(D) combining the personal information that the contractor receives under a written contract with the business with personal information that it receives on behalf of another person or persons, or collects from its own interaction with the consumer;

(2) includes a certification made by the contractor that the contractor understands the restrictions in paragraph (1) and will comply with them; and

(3) permits, subject to agreement with the contractor, the business to monitor the contractor's compliance with the contract through measures, including, but not limited to, ongoing manual reviews and automated scans and regular assessments, audits, or other technical and operational testing at least once every 12 months.

"Control" or "controlled" means ownership of, or the power to vote, more than 50% of the outstanding shares, control in any manner over the election of a majority of directors, or of individuals exercising similar functions, or the power to exercise a controlling influence over the management of the company.

"Covered entity" has the meaning given to that term in Section 160.103 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

"Cross-context behavioral advertising" means the targeting of advertising to a consumer based on the personal information obtained from the consumer's activity across businesses, distinctly branded websites, applications, or services, other than the business, distinctly branded website, application, or service with which the consumer intentionally interacts.

"Dark pattern" means a user interface designed or manipulated with the substantial effect of subverting or impairing user autonomy, decision-making, or choice.

"Deidentified" means information that cannot be reasonably used to infer information about, or otherwise be linked to, a particular consumer if the business that possesses the information:

(1) takes reasonable measures to ensure that the information cannot be associated with a consumer or household;

(2) publicly commits to maintain and use the information in deidentified form and not to attempt to reidentify the information; and

(3) contractually obligates any recipients of the information to comply with all provisions of this definition.

"Designated methods for submitting requests" means a mailing address, email address, Internet webpage, Internet web portal, toll-free telephone number, or other applicable contact information, whereby consumers may submit a request or direction under this Act, and any new, consumer-friendly means of contacting a business.

"Device" means any physical object that is capable of connecting to the Internet, directly or indirectly, or to another device.

"Director" means a natural person designated in the articles of incorporation as director, or elected by the incorporators and natural persons designated, elected, or appointed by any other name or title to act as directors, and their successors.

"Educational standardized assessment or educational assessment" means a standardized or nonstandardized quiz, test, or other assessment used to evaluate students in or for entry to kindergarten and grades 1 through 12, schools, postsecondary institutions, vocational programs, and postgraduate programs that are accredited by an accrediting agency or organization recognized by the State or the United States Department of Education, as well as certification and licensure examinations used to determine competency and eligibility to receive certification or licensure from a government agency or government certification body.

"Family" means a custodial parent or guardian and any children under 18 years of age over which the parent or guardian has custody.

"Fraudulent concealment" means the person knows of material facts related to the person's duties under this Act and knowingly conceals the facts in performing or omitting to perform those duties for the purpose of defrauding the public of information to which it is entitled under this Act.

"Homepage" means the introductory page of an Internet website and any Internet webpage where personal information is collected. "Homepage", in the case of an online service such as a mobile application, means the application's platform page or download page, a link within the application, such as from the application configuration, "About", "Information", or settings page, and any other location that allows consumers to review the notices required by this Act, including, but not limited to, before downloading the application.

"Household" means a group, however identified, of consumers who cohabitate with one another at the same residential address and share use of common devices or services.

"Independent contractor" means a natural person who provides any service to a business under a written contract.

"Individually identifiable" means that the medical information includes or contains any element of personal identifying information sufficient to allow identification of the individual, such as the patient's name, address, email address, telephone number, or social security number, or other information that, alone or in combination with other publicly available information, reveals the identity of the individual.

"Infer" or "inference" means the derivation of information, data, assumptions, or conclusions from facts, evidence, or other sources of information or data.

"Insurance institution" means any corporation, association, partnership, reciprocal exchange, interinsurer, fraternal benefit society, or other person engaged in the business of insurance. "Insurance institution" does not include agents, insurance-support organizations, or health care service plans.

"Intentionally interacts" means when the consumer intends to interact with a person, or disclose personal information to a person, via one or more deliberate interactions, including visiting the person's website or purchasing a good or service from the person. "Intentionally interacts" does not include hovering over, muting, pausing, or closing a given piece of content.

"Jeopardize the validity and reliability of that educational standardized assessment or educational assessment" means releasing information that would provide an advantage to the consumer who has submitted a verifiable consumer request or to another natural person.

"Local educational agency" includes school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools.

"Management employee" means a natural person whose name and contact information is reported to or collected by a commercial credit reporting agency as the primary manager of a business and used solely within the context of the natural person's role as the primary manager of the business.

"Medical information" means any individually identifiable information, in electronic or physical form, in possession of or derived from a provider of health care, health care service plan, pharmaceutical company, or contractor regarding a patient's medical history, mental health application information, mental or physical condition, or treatment.

"Medical staff member" means a licensed physician and surgeon, dentist, or podiatric physician, licensed under the Medical Practice Act of 1987, the Illinois Dental Practice Act, or the Podiatric Medical Practice Act of 1987 and a clinical psychologist as defined in the Clinical Psychologist Licensing Act.

"New motor vehicle dealer" is a dealer who either acquires for resale new and unregistered motor vehicles from manufacturers or distributors of those motor vehicles or acquires for resale new off-highway motorcycles or all-terrain vehicles from manufacturers or distributors of the vehicles.

"Nonpersonalized advertising" means advertising and marketing that is based solely on personal information derived from the consumer's current interaction with the business with the exception of the consumer's precise geolocation.

"Officer" means a natural person elected or appointed by the board of directors to manage the daily operations of a corporation, including a chief executive officer, president, secretary, or treasurer.

"Owner" means a natural person who:

(1) has ownership of, or the power to vote, more than 50% of the outstanding shares of any class of voting security of a business;

(2) has control in any manner over the election of a majority of the directors or of individuals exercising similar functions; or

(3) has the power to exercise a controlling influence over the management of a company.

"Ownership information" means the name or names of and contact information for the registered owner or owners.

"Person" means an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business, trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, and any other organization or group of persons acting in concert.

"Personal information" means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. "Personal information" includes, but is not limited to, the following if it identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household:

(1) identifiers such as a real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, social security number, driver's license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers;

(2) any information, including, but not limited to, signature, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information, but does not include publicly available information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, State, or local government records;

(3) characteristics of protected classifications under State or federal law;

(4) commercial information, including records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies;

(5) biometric information;

(6) Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer's interaction with an Internet website, application, or advertisement;

(7) geolocation data;

(8) audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information;

(9) professional or employment-related information;

(10) education information that is not publicly available, personally identifiable information as defined in the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act;

(11) inferences drawn from any of the information identified in this definition to create a profile about a consumer to reflect the consumer's preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes; or

(12) sensitive personal information. "Personal information" does not include publicly available information or lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern, consumer information that is deidentified, or aggregate consumer information.

"Precise geolocation" means any data that is derived from a device and that is used or intended to be used to locate a consumer within a geographic area that is equal to or less than the area of a circle with a radius of 1,850 feet, except as prescribed by rules.

"Processing" means any operation or set of operations that are performed on personal information or on sets of personal information, whether by automated means.

"Profiling" means any form of automated processing of personal information to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person and in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements.

"Protected health information" has the meaning given to that term in Section 160.103 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

"Provider of health care" means a person licensed or certified under the Medical Practice Act of 1987, the Nurse Practice Act, the Illinois Dental Practice Act, the Podiatric Medical Practice Act of 1987, the Illinois Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Practice Act, the Illinois Occupational Therapy Practice Act, the Dietitian Nutritionist Practice Act, the Perfusionist Practice Act, the Illinois Physical Therapy Act, the Licensed Certified Professional Midwife Practice Act, the Clinical Psychologist Licensing Act, the Illinois Optometric Practice Act of 1987, the Physician Assistant Practice Act of 1987, the Respiratory Care Practice Act, the Pharmacy Practice Act, the Massage Licensing Act, the Music Therapy Licensing and Practice Act, the Veterinary Medicine and Surgery Practice Act of 2004, the Acupuncture Practice Act, the Marriage and Family Therapy Licensing Act, the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act, the Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act, and the Professional Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing and Practice Act or a clinic, health dispensary, or health facility licensed under the Community Living Facilities Licensing Act, the Home Health, Home Services, and Home Nursing Agency Licensing Act, the Hospice Program Licensing Act, and the Hospital Licensing Act. "Provider of health care" does not include insurance institutions.

"Pseudonymize" or "pseudonymization" means the processing of personal information in a manner that renders the personal information no longer attributable to a specific consumer without the use of additional information, as long as the additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organizational measures to ensure that the personal information is not attributed to an identified or identifiable consumer.

"Publicly available" means information that is lawfully made available from federal, State, or local government records, information that a business has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by the consumer or from widely distributed media or information made available by a person to whom the consumer has disclosed the information if the consumer has not restricted the information to a specific audience. "Publicly available" does not include biometric information collected by a business about a consumer without the consumer's knowledge.

"Research" means scientific analysis, systematic study, and observation, including basic research or applied research that is designed to develop or contribute to public or scientific knowledge and that adheres or otherwise conforms to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, including, but not limited to, studies conducted in the public interest in the area of public health.

"Security and integrity" means the ability of:

(1) networks or information systems to detect security incidents that compromise the availability, authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of stored or transmitted personal information;

(2) businesses to detect security incidents, resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions and to help prosecute those responsible for those actions; and

(3) businesses to ensure the physical safety of natural persons.

"Sell", "selling", "sale", or "sold" means selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means personal information by the business to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.

"Sensitive personal information" means:

(1) personal information that reveals:

(A) a consumer's social security, driver's license, state identification card, or passport number;

(B) a consumer's account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account;

(C) a consumer's precise geolocation;

(D) a consumer's racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership;

(E) the contents of a consumer's mail, email, or text messages unless the business is the intended recipient of the communication; or

(F) a consumer's genetic data;

(2) the processing of biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying a consumer;

(3) personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer's health; or

(4) personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer's sex life or sexual orientation. "Sensitive personal information" does not include sensitive personal information that is publicly available.

"Service" or "services" means work, labor, and services, including services furnished in connection with the sale or repair of goods.

"Service provider" means a person that processes personal information on behalf of a business and that receives from or on behalf of the business personal information for a business purpose under a written contract, as long as the contract prohibits the person from:

(1) selling or sharing the personal information;

(2) retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information for any purpose other than for the specific business purposes specified in the contract for the business, including retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information for a commercial purpose other than the business purposes specified in the contract with the business, or as otherwise permitted by this Act;

(3) retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information outside of the direct business relationship between the service provider and the business; or

(4) combining the personal information that the service provider receives from, or on behalf of, the business with personal information that it receives from, or on behalf of, another person or persons, or collects from its own interaction with the consumer.

"Share", "shared", or "sharing" means sharing, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means personal information by the business to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising, whether for monetary or other valuable consideration, including transactions between a business and a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising for the benefit of a business in which no money is exchanged.

"Third party" means a person who is not:

(1) the business with whom the consumer intentionally interacts and that collects personal information from the consumer as part of the consumer's current interaction with the business under this Act;

(2) a service provider to the business; or

(3) a contractor.

"Unique identifier" or "unique personal identifier" means a persistent identifier that can be used to recognize a consumer, family, or device that is linked to a consumer or family, over time and across different services, including, but not limited to, a device identifier, Internet Protocol address, cookies, beacons, pixel tags, mobile ad identifiers, or similar technology, customer number, unique pseudonym, or user alias, telephone numbers, or other forms of persistent or probabilistic identifiers that can be used to identify a particular consumer or device that is linked to a consumer or family.

"Vehicle information" means the vehicle information number, make, model, year, and odometer reading.

"Vehicle manufacturer" means any person who produces from raw materials or new basic components a vehicle of a type subject to registration, off-highway motorcycles or all-terrain vehicles subject to identification, or trailers subject to identification, or who permanently alters, for purposes of retail sales, new commercial vehicles by converting the vehicles into house cars.

"Verifiable consumer request" means a request that is made by a consumer, by a consumer on behalf of the consumer's minor child, by a natural person or a person registered with the Secretary of State authorized by the consumer to act on the consumer's behalf, or by a person who has power of attorney, and that the business can reasonably verify, using commercially reasonable methods to be the consumer about whom the business has collected personal information.

Section 5-15. Miscellaneous provisions.

(a) The joint venture or partnership and each business that composes the joint venture or partnership shall separately be considered a single business, except that personal information in the possession of each business and disclosed to the joint venture or partnership shall not be shared with the other business.

(b) A contractor may combine personal information to perform any business purpose, except as provided for in paragraph (6) of the definition of business purposes and in rules adopted by the Agency.

(c) If a contractor engages any other person to assist it in processing personal information for a business purpose on behalf of that business, or if any other person engaged by the contractor engages another person to assist in processing personal information for that business purposes, it shall notify the business of that engagement, and the engagement shall be under a written contract binding the other person to observe all of the requirements set forth in the definition of contractor.

(d) A business may attempt to reidentify the deindentified personal information solely for the purpose of determining whether its deidentification processes satisfies the requirements of the definition of deidentified.

(e) Research with personal information that may have been collected from a consumer in the course of consumer's interactions with a business's service or device for other purposes shall be:

(1) compatible with the business purpose for which the personal information was collected;

(2) subsequently pseudonymized and deidentified, or deidentified and in the aggregate, such that the information cannot reasonably identify, relate to, describe, be capable of being associated with, or be linked, directly or indirectly, to a particular consumer, by a business;

(3) made subject to technical safeguards that prohibit reidentification of the consumer to whom the information may pertain, other than as needed to support the research;

(4) subject to business processes that specifically prohibit reidentification of the information, other than as needed to support the research;

(5) made subject to business processes to prevent inadvertent release of deidentified information;

(6) protected from any reidentification attempts;

(7) used solely for research purposes that are compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected; and

(8) subjected by the business conducting the research to additional security controls that limit access to the research data to only those individuals as are necessary to carry out the research purpose.

(f) A business that does not sell or share personal information when:

(1) a consumer uses or directs the business to intentionally:

(A) disclose personal information; or

(B) interact with one or more third parties;

(2) the business uses or shares an identifier for a consumer who has opted-out of the sale of personal information or limited the use of sensitive personal information for the purposes of altering persons that the consumer has opted-out of the sale of personal information or limited the use of sensitive personal information; or

(3) the business transfers to a third party the personal information as an asset that is part of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other transaction in which the third party assumes control of all or part of the business, as long as that personal information is used or shared consistently with this Act. If a third party materially alters how it uses or shares the personal information in a manner that is materially inconsistent with the promises made at the time of collection, it shall provide prior notice of the new or changed practice to the consumer. The notice shall be sufficiently prominent and robust to ensure that existing consumers can easily exercise their choices consistently with this Act. This paragraph does not authorize a business to make material, retroactive privacy policy changes or make other changes in their privacy policy in a manner that would violate the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

(g) A service provider may combine personal information to perform any business purpose, except as provided for in paragraph (6) of the definition of business purpose in Section 5-10 and in rules adopted by the Agency. The contract may, subject to agreement with the service provider, permit the business to monitor the service provider's compliance with the contract through measures, including, but not limited to, ongoing manual reviews and automated scans and regular assessments, audits, or other technical and operational testing at least once every 12 months.

(h) If a service provider engages any other person to assist it in processing personal information for a business purpose on behalf of the business, or if any other person engaged by the service provider engages another person to assist in processing personal information for that business purpose, it shall notify the business of that engagement, and the engagement shall be under a written contract binding the other person to observe all the requirements set forth in the definition of service provider.

(i) A business is not obligated to provide information to the consumer under Sections 10-20 and 10-25 to delete personal information or to correct inaccurate personal information, if the business cannot verify that the consumer making the request is the consumer about whom the business has collected information or is a person authorized by the consumer to act on such consumer's behalf.

Article 10. Personal Information

Section 10-5. General duties of businesses that collect personal information.

(a) A business that controls the collection of personal information shall, at or before the point of collection, inform consumers of:

(1) the categories of personal information to be collected and the purposes for which the categories of personal information are collected or used and whether that information is sold or shared. A business shall not collect additional categories of personal information or use personal information collected for additional purposes that are incompatible with the disclosed purpose for which the personal information was collected without providing the consumer with notice consistent with this Section

(2) if the business collects sensitive personal information, the categories of sensitive personal information to be collected and the purposes for which the categories of sensitive personal information to be collected. A business shall not collect additional categories of sensitive personal information or use sensitive personal information collected for additional purposes that are incompatible with the disclosed purpose for which the sensitive personal information was collected without providing the consumer with notice consistent with this Section; and

(3) the length of time the business intends to retain each category of personal information, including sensitive personal information, or, if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period provided that a business shall not retain personal information or sensitive personal information for each disclosed purpose for which the personal information was collected for longer than is reasonably necessary for that disclosed purpose.

(b) A business that, acting as a third party, controls the collection of personal information may satisfy its obligation under subsection (a) by providing the required information prominently and conspicuously on the homepage of its Internet website. If a business acting as a third party controls the collection of personal information on its premises, including in a vehicle, then the business shall, at or before the point of collection, inform consumers as to the categories of personal information to be collected and the purposes for which the categories of personal information are used, and whether that personal information is sold, in a clear and conspicuous manner at the location.

(c) Collection, use, retention, and sharing of personal information by a business shall be reasonably necessary and proportionate to achieve the purposes for which the personal information was collected or processed, or for another disclosed purpose that is compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected, and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.

(d) A business that collects personal information and that sells that personal information to, or shares it with, a third party or that discloses it to a service provider or contractor for a business purpose shall enter into an agreement with the third party, service provider, or contractor that:

(1) specifies that the personal information is sold or disclosed by the business only for limited and specified purposes;

(2) obligates the third party, service provider, or contractor to comply with applicable obligations under this Act and obligate those persons to provide the same level of privacy protection as is required under this Act;

(3) grants the business rights to take reasonable and appropriate steps to help ensure that the third party, service provider, or contractor uses the personal information transferred in a manner consistent with the obligations of the business under this Act;

(4) requires the third party, service provider, or contractor to notify the business if it makes a determination that it can no longer meet its obligations under this Act; and

(5) grants the business the right, upon notice, to take reasonable and appropriate steps to stop and remediate unauthorized use of personal information.

(e) A business that collects personal information shall implement reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the personal information to protect the personal information from unauthorized or illegal access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.

(f) Nothing in this Section shall require a business to disclose trade secrets.

Section 10-10. Right to delete personal information.

(a) A consumer shall have the right to request that a business delete any personal information about the consumer which the business has collected from the consumer.

(b) A business that collects personal information shall disclose the consumer's rights to request the deletion of the personal information.

(c) A business that receives a verifiable consumer request from a consumer to delete the personal information under subsection (a) shall delete the personal information from its records, notify any service providers or contractors to delete the personal information from their records, and notify all third parties to whom the business has sold or shared the personal information to delete the personal information unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort.

The business may maintain a confidential record of deletion requests solely for the purpose of preventing the personal information of a consumer who has submitted a deletion request from being sold, for compliance with laws or for other purposes, solely to the extent permissible under this Act.

A service provider or contractor shall cooperate with the business in responding to a verifiable consumer request, and, at the direction of the business, shall delete, or enable the business to delete, and notify any of its own service providers or contractors to delete the personal information collected, used, processed, or retained by the service provider or contractor. The service provider or contractor shall notify any service providers, contractors, or third parties who may have accessed personal information from or through the service provider or contractor, unless the information was accessed at the direction of the business, to delete the personal information unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort. A service provider or contractor shall not be required to comply with a deletion request submitted by the consumer directly to the service provider or contractor to the extent that the service provider or contractor has collected, used, processed, or retained the personal information in its role as a service provider or contractor to the business.

(d) A business, or a service provider or contractor acting under its contract with the business, shall not be required to comply with a consumer's request to delete personal information if it is reasonably necessary for the business, service provider, or contractor to maintain the personal information in order to:

(1) complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, provide a good or service requested by the consumer, or reasonably anticipate an ongoing business relationship with the consumer, or otherwise perform a contract between the business and the consumer;

(2) help to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of the personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for those purposes;

(3) debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;

(4) exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise that consumer's right of free speech, or exercise another right provided for by law;

(5) comply with the Protecting Household Privacy Act;

(6) engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research that conforms or adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the ability to complete such research, if the consumer has provided informed consent;

(7) to enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with the expectations of the consumer based on the consumer's relationship with the business and compatible with the context in which the consumer provided the information; or

(8) comply with a legal obligation.

Section 10-15. Right to correct inaccurate personal information.

(a) A consumer shall have the right to request a business that maintains inaccurate personal information about the consumer to correct that inaccurate personal information, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing of the personal information.

(b) A business that collects personal information shall disclose the consumer's right to request correction of inaccurate personal information.

(c) A business that receives a verifiable consumer request to correct inaccurate personal information shall use commercially reasonable efforts to correct the inaccurate personal information as directed by the consumer.

Section 10-20. Right to know what personal information is being collected; right to access personal information.

(a) A consumer shall have the right to request that a business that collects personal information about the consumer disclose to the consumer:

(1) the categories of personal information it has collected about the consumer;

(2) the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;

(3) the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information;

(4) the categories of third parties to whom the business discloses personal information; and

(5) the specific pieces of personal information it has collected about that consumer.

(b) A business that collects personal information shall disclose to the consumer the information specified in subsection (a) upon receipt of a verifiable consumer request from the consumer.

(c) A business that collects personal information shall disclose that a consumer has the right to request the specific pieces of information the business has collected about that consumer.

Section 10-25. Right to know what personal information is sold or shared and to whom.

(a) A consumer shall have the right to request that a business that sells or shares personal information, or that discloses personal information for a business purpose, disclose to that consumer:

(1) the categories of personal information that the business collected about the consumer;

(2) the categories of personal information that the business sold or shared about the consumer and the categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared, by category or categories of personal information for each category of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared; and

(3) the categories of personal information that the business disclosed about the consumer for a business purpose and the categories of persons to whom it was disclosed for a business purpose.

(b) A business that sells or shares personal information, or that discloses personal information for a business purpose, shall disclose the personal information specified in subsection (a) to the consumer upon receipt of a verifiable consumer request from the consumer.

(c) A business that sells or shares personal information, or that discloses personal information for a business purpose, shall disclose:

(1) the category or categories of personal information it has sold or shared, or if the business has not sold or shared personal information, it shall disclose that fact; and

(2) the category or categories of personal information it has disclosed for a business purpose, or if the business has not disclosed personal information for a business purpose, it shall disclose that fact.

(d) A third party shall not sell or share personal information that has been sold to, or shared with, the third party by a business unless the consumer has received explicit notice and is provided an opportunity to exercise the right to opt out.

Section 10-30. Right to opt out of sale or sharing of personal information.

(a) A consumer shall have the right, at any time, to direct a business that sells or shares personal information to third parties not to sell or share the personal information. This right may be referred to as the right to opt out of sale or sharing.

(b) A business that sells personal information to, or shares it with, third parties shall provide notice to consumers that this information may be sold or shared and that consumers have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information.

(c) Notwithstanding subsection (a), a business shall not sell or share the personal information of consumers if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, in the case of consumers at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, or the consumer's parent or guardian in the case of consumers who are less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the sale or sharing of the personal information. A business that willfully disregards the consumer's age shall be deemed to have had actual knowledge of the consumer's age.

(d) A business that has received direction from a consumer not to sell or share personal information or, in the case of a minor consumer's personal information has not received consent to sell or share the minor consumer's personal information, shall be prohibited from selling or sharing the personal information after its receipt of the consumer's direction, unless the consumer subsequently provides consent, for the sale or sharing of the personal information.

Section 10-35. Right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal information.

(a) A consumer shall have the right, at any time, to direct a business that collects sensitive personal information to limit its use of the sensitive personal information to that use which is necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer who requests those goods or services, to perform the services set forth in paragraphs (2), (4), (5), and (8) in the definition of business purpose in Section 5-10, and as authorized by rule. A business that uses or discloses sensitive personal information for purposes other than those specified in this subsection shall provide notice to consumers that this information may be used, or disclosed to a service provider or contractor, for additional, specified purposes and that consumers have the right to limit the use or disclosure of their sensitive personal information.

(b) A business that has received direction from a consumer not to use or disclose the sensitive personal information, except as authorized under subsection (a), shall be prohibited from using or disclosing the sensitive personal information for any other purpose after its receipt of the consumer's direction unless the consumer subsequently provides consent for the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information for additional purposes.

(c) A service provider or contractor that assists a business in performing the purposes authorized by subsection (a) may not use the sensitive personal information after it has received instructions from the business and to the extent it has actual knowledge that the sensitive personal information is sensitive personal information for any other purpose. A service provider or contractor is only required to limit its use of sensitive personal information received under a written contract with the business in response to instructions from the business and only with respect to its relationship with that business.

(d) Sensitive personal information that is collected or processed without the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer is not subject to this Section, as further defined by rule, and shall be treated as personal information.

Section 10-40. Right of no retaliation following opt-out or exercise of other rights.

(a) A business shall not discriminate against a consumer because the consumer exercised any of the consumer's rights under this Act, including, but not limited to:

(1) denying goods or services to the consumer;

(2) charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;

(3) providing a different level or quality of goods or services to the consumer; or

(4) suggesting that the consumer will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

A business shall not retaliate against an employee applicant for employment, or independent contractor for exercising their rights under this Act.

Nothing in this subsection prohibits a business from charging a consumer a different price or rate, or from providing a different level or quality of goods or services, to the consumer if that difference is reasonably related to the value provided to the business by the consumer's data.

This subsection does not prohibit a business from offering loyalty, rewards, premium features, discounts, or club card programs consistent with this Act.

(b) A business may offer financial incentives, including payments to consumers as compensation, for the collection of personal information, or the retention of personal information. A business may also offer a different price, rate, level, or quality of goods or services to the consumer if that price or difference is reasonably related to the value provided to the business by the consumer's data.

A business that offers any financial incentives under this subsection shall notify consumers of the financial incentives under Section 10-45.

A business may enter a consumer into a financial incentive program only if the consumer gives the business prior opt-in consent based on clearly described material terms of the financial incentive program, which may be revoked by the consumer at any time. If a consumer refuses to provide opt-in consent, then the business shall wait for at least 12 months before next requesting that the consumer provide opt-in consent, or as prescribed by rules.

A business shall not use financial incentive practices that are unjust, unreasonable, coercive, or usurious in nature.

Section 10-45. Notice, disclosure, correction, and deletion requirements.

(a) In order to comply with Sections 10-5, 10-10, 10-15, 10-20, 10-25, and 10-45, a business shall, in a form that is reasonably accessible to consumers:

(1) (A) make available to consumers 2 or more designated methods for submitting requests for information required to be disclosed under Sections 10-20 and 10-25 or requests for deletion or correction under Sections 10-10 and 10-15, including, at a minimum, a toll-free telephone number. A business that operates exclusively online and has a direct relationship with a consumer from whom it collects personal information shall only be required to provide an email address for submitting requests for information required to be disclosed under Sections 10-20 and 10-25;

(B) if the business maintains an Internet website, make the internet website available to consumers to submit requests for information required to be disclosed under Sections 10-20 and 10-25 or requests for deletion or correction under Sections 10-10 and 10-15;

(2) disclose and deliver the required information to a consumer free of charge, correct inaccurate personal information, or delete personal information, based on the consumer's request, within 45 days of receiving a verifiable consumer request from the consumer. The business shall promptly take steps to determine whether the request is a verifiable consumer request, but this shall not extend the business's duty to disclose and deliver the information, correct inaccurate personal information, or delete personal information within 45 days of receipt of the consumer's request. The period to provide the required information, correct inaccurate personal information, or delete personal information may be extended once by an additional 45 days when reasonably necessary, as long as the consumer is provided notice of the extension within the first 45-day period. The disclosure of the required information shall be made in writing and delivered through the consumer's account with the business, if the consumer maintains an account with the business, or by mail or electronically at the consumer's option if the consumer does not maintain an account with the business, in a readily usable format that allows the consumer to transmit this information from one entity to another entity without hindrance. The business may require authentication of the consumer that is reasonable in light of the nature of the personal information requested, but shall not require the consumer to create an account with the business in order to make a verifiable consumer request. If the consumer has an account with the business, the business may require the consumer to use that account to submit a verifiable consumer request.

The disclosure of the required information shall cover the 12-month period preceding the business' receipt of the verifiable consumer request. Upon the adoption of a rule under Section 10-75, a consumer may request that the business disclose the required information beyond the 12-month period, and the business shall be required to provide that information unless doing so proves impossible or would involve a disproportionate effort. A consumer's right to request required information beyond the 12-month period, and a business's obligation to provide that information, shall only apply to personal information collected on or after January 1, 2025. Nothing in this subparagraph shall require a business to keep personal information for any length of time;

(3) a business that receives a verifiable consumer request under Section 10-20 or 10-25, disclose any personal information it has collected about a consumer, directly or indirectly, including through or by a service provider or contractor, to the consumer. A service provider or contractor shall not be required to comply with a verifiable consumer request received directly from a consumer or consumer's authorized agent under Section 10-20 or 10-25 to the extent that the service provider or contractor has collected personal information about the consumer in its role as a service provider or contractor. A service provider or contractor shall provide assistance to a business with which it has a contractual relationship with respect to the business's response to a verifiable consumer request, including, but not limited to, by providing to the business the personal information in the service provider's or contractor's possession that the service provider or contractor obtained as a result of providing services to the business and by correcting inaccurate information or by enabling the business to do the same. A service provider or contractor that collects personal information under a written contract with a business shall be required to assist the business through appropriate technical and organizational measures in complying with the requirements of subsections (d) through (f) of Section 10-5, taking into account the nature of the processing.

(4) for purposes of subsection (b) of Section 10-20:

(A) to identify the consumer, associate the information provided to the consumer in the verifiable consumer request to any personal information previously collected by the business about the consumer;

(B) identify by category or categories the personal information collected about the consumer for the applicable period by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describes the personal information collected, the categories of sources from which the personal information was collected, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing the personal information, and the categories of third parties to whom the business discloses the personal information; and

(C) provide the specific pieces of personal information obtained from the consumer in a format that is easily understandable to the average consumer, and to the extent technically feasible, in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format that may also be transmitted to another entity at the consumer's request without hindrance. Specific pieces of personal information do not include data generated to help ensure security and integrity or as prescribed by rule. Personal information is not considered to have been disclosed by a business when a consumer instructs a business to transfer the personal information from one business to another in the context of switching services;

(5) for purposes of subsection (b) of Section 10-25:

(A) identify the consumer and associate the information provided by the consumer in the verifiable consumer request to any personal information previously collected by the business about the consumer;

(B) identify by category or categories the personal information of the consumer that the business sold or shared during the applicable period by reference to the enumerated category in subsection (c) that most closely describes the personal information, and provide the categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared during the applicable period by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describes the personal information sold or shared. The business shall disclose the information in a list that is separate from a list generated under subparagraph (C); and

(C) identify by category or categories the personal information of the consumer that the business disclosed for a business purpose during the applicable period by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describes the personal information, and provide the categories of persons to whom the personal information was disclosed for a business purpose during the applicable period by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describes the personal information disclosed. The business shall disclose the information in a list that is separate from a list generated under subparagraph (B);

(6) disclose the following information in its online privacy policy or policies if the business has an online privacy police or policies and in any State-specific description of consumer privacy rights, or if the business does not maintain those policies, on its Internet website and update that information at least once every 12 months:

(A) a description of a consumer's rights under Sections 10-5, 10-10, 10-15, 10-20, 10-25, and 10-45 and 2 more designated methods for submitting requests, except as provided in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subsection (a);

(B) for purposes of subsection (c) of Section 10-20:

(i) a list of categories of personal information it has collected about consumers in the preceding 12 months by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describe the personal information collected;

(ii) the categories of sources from which personal information is collected;

(iii) the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information; and

(iv) the categories of third parties to whom the business discloses personal information; and

(C) for purposes of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (c) of Section 10-25, 2 separate lists:

(i) a list of categories of personal information it has sold or shared about consumers in the preceding 12 months by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describe the personal information sold or shared, or if the business has not sold or shared personal information in the preceding 12 months, the business shall prominently disclose that fact in its privacy policy; and

(ii) a list of the categories of personal information it has disclosed about consumers for a business purpose in the preceding 12 months by reference to the enumerated category or categories in subsection (c) that most closely describes the personal information disclosed, or if the business has not disclosed personal information in the preceding 12 months, the business shall disclose that fact;

(7) ensure that all individuals responsible for handling consumer inquiries about the business' privacy practices or the business' compliance with this Act are informed of all requirements in Sections 10-5, 10-10, 10-15, 10-20, 10-25, and 10-45 and this Section, and how to direct consumers to exercise their rights under those Sections; and

(8) use any personal information collected from the consumer in connection with the business' verification of the consumer's request solely for the purposes of verification and shall not further disclose the personal information, retain it longer than necessary for purposes of verification, or use it for unrelated purposes.

(b) A business is not obligated to provide the information required by Sections 10-20 and 10-25 to the same consumer more than twice in a 12-month period.

(c) The categories of personal information required to be disclosed under Sections 10-5, 10-20, and 10-25 shall follow the definitions of personal information and sensitive personal information by describing the categories of personal information using the specific terms set forth in the definition of personal information and by describing the categories of sensitive personal information using the specific terms set forth in the definition of sensitive personal information.

Section 10-50. Methods of limiting sale, sharing, and use of personal information and use of sensitive personal information.

(a) A business that is sells or shares personal information or discloses sensitive personal information for purposes other than those authorized by subsection (a) of Section 10-35 shall, in a form that is reasonably accessible to consumers:

(1) provide a clear and conspicuous link on the business's Internet homepage titled "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" to an Internet webpage that enables a consumer, or a person authorized by the consumer, to opt out of the sale or sharing of the personal information;

(2) provide a clear and conspicuous link on the business's Internet homepage titled "Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information" that enables a consumer, or a person authorized by the consumer, to limit the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information;

(3) at the business's discretion, use a single, clearly labeled link on the business's Internet homepage, in lieu of complying with paragraphs (1) and (2), if that link easily allows a consumer to opt out of the sale or sharing of the personal information and to limit the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information; and

(4) if the business responds to opt-out requests received under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) by informing the consumer of a charge for the use of any product or service, present the terms of any financial incentive offered under subsection (b) of Section 10-40, for the retention, use, sale, or sharing of the personal information or sensitive personal information.

(b) A business shall not be required to comply with subsection (a) if the business allows consumers to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information or limit the use of sensitive personal information through an opt-out preference signal sent with the consumer's consent by a platform, technology, or mechanism, based on technical specifications set forth by rules, to the business indicating the consumer's intent to opt out of the business's sale or sharing of the personal information or to limit the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information, or both.

A business that allows consumers to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information and to limit the use of sensitive personal information under this subsection may provide a link to a webpage that enables the consumer to consent to the business ignoring the opt-out preference signal with respect to that business's sale or sharing of the personal information or the use of the sensitive personal information for additional purposes if:

(1) the consent webpage also allows the consumer or a person authorized by the consumer to revoke the consent as easily as it affirmatively provided;

(2) the link to the webpage does not degrade the consumer's experience on the webpage the consumer intends to visit and has a similar look, feel, and size relative to other links on the same webpage; and

(3) the consent webpage complies with technical specifications set forth by rules.

A business that complies with subsection (a) is not required to comply with subsection (b). A business may elect whether to comply with subsection (a) or (b).

(c) A business that is subject to this Section shall:

(1) not require a consumer to create an account or provide additional information beyond what is necessary in order to direct the business not to sell or share the personal information or to limit use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information;

(2) include a description of a consumer's rights under Sections 10-30 and 10-35, along with a separate link to the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" Internet webpage and a separate link to the "Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information" Internet webpage, if applicable, or a single link to both choices, or a statement that the business responds to and abides by opt-out preference signals sent by a platform, technology, or mechanism in accordance with subsection (b), in:

(A) its online privacy policy or policies if the business has an online privacy policy or policies; and

(B) any State-specific description of consumers' privacy rights;

(3) ensure that all individuals responsible for handling consumer inquiries about the business's privacy practices or the business's compliance with this Act are informed of all requirements in Sections 10-30 and 10-35 and this Section and how to direct consumers to exercise their rights under those Sections;

(4) for consumers who exercise their right to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information or limit the use or disclosure of their sensitive personal information, refrain from selling or sharing the personal information or using or disclosing the sensitive personal information and wait for at least 12 months before requesting that the consumer authorize the sale or sharing of the personal information or the use and disclosure of the sensitive personal information for additional purposes, or as authorized by rules;

(5) for consumers under 16 years of age who do not consent to the sale or sharing of their personal information, refrain from selling or sharing the personal information of the consumer under 16 years of age and wait for at least 12 months before requesting the consumer's consent again, or as authorized by rules or until the consumer attains 16 years of age; and

(6) use any personal information collected from the consumer in connection with the submission of the consumer's opt-out request solely for the purposes of complying with the opt-out request.

(d) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require a business to comply with the Act by including the required links and text on the homepage that the business makes available to the public generally, if the business maintains a separate and additional homepage that is dedicated to State consumers and that includes the required links and text, and the business takes reasonable steps to ensure that State consumers are directed to the homepage for State consumers and not the homepage made available to the public generally.

(e) A consumer may authorize another person to opt out of the sale or sharing of the personal information and to limit the use of the sensitive personal information on the consumer's behalf, including through an opt-out preference signal, indicating the consumer's intent to opt out, and a business shall comply with an opt-out request received from a person authorized by the consumer to act on the consumer's behalf, under the rules adopted by the Attorney General, regardless of whether the business has elected to comply with subsection (a) or (b). A business that elects to comply with subsection (a) may respond to the consumer's opt-out request consistent with Section 10-40.

(f) If a business communicates a consumer's opt-out request to any persona authorized by the business to collect personal information, the person shall thereafter only use that personal information for a business purpose specified by the business, or as otherwise permitted by this Act, and shall be prohibited from:

(1) selling or sharing that personal information; or

(2) retaining, using, or disclosing that personal information:

(A) for any purpose other than for the specific purpose of performing the services offered to the business;

(B) outside of the direct business relationship between the person and the business; or

(C) for a commercial purpose other than providing the services to the business.

(g) A business that communicates a consumer's opt-out request to a person under subsection (f) shall not be liable under this Act if the person receiving the opt-out request violates the restrictions set forth in the Act, if, at the time of communicating the opt-out request, the business does not have actual knowledge, or reason to believe, that the person intends to commit such a violation. Any provision of a contract or agreement of any kind that purports to waive or limit this subsection in any way shall be void and unenforceable.

Section 10-55. Exemptions.

(a) The obligations imposed on a business by this Act shall not restrict a business's ability to:

(1) comply with federal, State, or local laws or comply with a court order or subpoena to provide information;

(2) comply with a civil, criminal, or regulatory inquiry, investigation, subpoena, or summons by federal, State, or local authorities. Law enforcement agencies, including police and sheriff's departments, may direct a business under a law enforcement agency-approved investigation with an active case number not to delete personal information, and upon receipt of that direction, a business shall not delete the personal information for 90 days in order to allow the law enforcement agency to obtain a court-issued subpoena, order, or warrant to obtain that personal information. For good cause and only to the extent necessary for investigatory purposes, a law enforcement agency may direct a business not to delete the personal information for additional 90-day periods. A business that has received direction from a law enforcement agency not to delete the personal information of a consumer who has requested deletion of the personal information shall not use the personal information for any purpose other than retaining it to produce to law enforcement in response to a court-issued subpoena, order, or warrant unless the deletion request is subject to an exemption from deletion under this Act;

(3) cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct or activity that the business, service provider, or third party reasonably and in good faith believes may violate federal, State, or local law;

(4) cooperate with a government agency request for emergency access to personal information if a natural person is at risk or danger of death or serious physical injury if:

(A) the request is approved by a high-ranking government agency officer for emergency access to personal information;

(B) the request is based on the government agency's good faith determination that it has a lawful basis to access the personal information on a nonemergency basis; and

(C) the government agency agrees to petition a court for an appropriate order within 3 days and to destroy the personal information if that order is not granted;

(5) exercise or defend legal claims;

(6) collect, use, retain, sell, share, or disclose personal information that is deidentified or aggregate consumer information; or

(7) collect, sell, or share personal information if every aspect of that commercial conduct takes place wholly outside of the State. Commercial conduct takes place wholly outside of the State if the business collected that information while the consumer was outside of the State, no part of the sale of the personal information occurred in the State, and no personal information collected while the consumer was in the State is sold. This paragraph shall not prohibit a business from storing, including on a device, personal information about a consumer when the consumer is in the State and then collecting that personal information when the consumer and stored personal information is outside of the State.

(b) The obligations imposed on businesses by Sections 10-20, 10-25, 10-30, 10-35, 10-45, and 10-50 shall not apply where compliance by the business with the Act would violate an evidentiary privilege under State law and shall not prevent a business from providing the personal information of a consumer to a person covered by an evidentiary privilege under State law as part of a privileged communication.

(c) This Act shall not apply to:

(1) medical information governed by the Medical Patient Rights Act or protected health information that is collected by a covered entity or business associate governed by the privacy, security, and breach notification rules issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Parts 160 and 164 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations;

(2) a provider of health care governed by the Medical Patient Rights Act or a covered entity governed by the privacy, security, and breach notification rules issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Parts 160 and 164 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations to the extent the provider or covered entity maintains patient information in the same manner as medical information or protected health information as described in paragraph (1); or

(3) personal information collected as part of a clinical trial or other biomedical research study subject to or conducted in accordance with the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects under good clinical practice guidelines issued by the International Council for Harmonisation or under human subject protection requirements of the United States Food and Drug Administration, as long as the information is not sold or shared in a manner not permitted by this paragraph, and if it is inconsistent, that participants be informed of that use and provide consent.

(d) This Act applies to an activity involving the collection, maintenance, disclosure, sale, communication, or use of any personal information bearing on a consumer's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living by a consumer reporting agency, as defined in subsection (f) of Section 1681a of Title 15 of the United States Code, by a furnisher of information, as set forth in Section 1681s-2 of Title 15 of the United States Code, who provides information for use in a consumer report, as defined in subsection (d) of Section 1681a of Title 15 of the United States Code, and by a user of a consumer report, as set forth in Section 1681b of Title 15 of the United States Code.

This subsection applies only to the extent that such activity involving the collection, maintenance, disclosure, sale, communication, or use of such information by the consumer reporting agency, furnisher, or user is subject to regulation under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and the information is not collected, maintained, used, communicated, disclosed, or sold except as authorized by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.

This subsection shall not apply to Section 10-60.

(e) This Act shall not apply to personal information collected, processed, sold, or disclosed under the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the federal Farm Credit Act of 1971. This subsection shall not apply to Section 10-60.

(f) This Act shall not apply to personal information collected, processed, sold, or disclosed under the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994. This subsection shall not apply to Section 10-60.

(g) Section 10-30 shall not apply to vehicle information or ownership information retained or shared between a new motor vehicle dealer and the vehicle's manufacturer, if the vehicle or ownership information is shared for the purpose of effectuating, or in anticipation of effectuating, a vehicle repair covered by a vehicle warranty or a recall conducted under Sections 30118 through 30120 of Title 49 of the United States Code, as long as the new motor vehicle dealer or vehicle manufacturer with which that vehicle information or ownership information is shared does not sell, share, or use that information for any other purpose.

(h) Notwithstanding a business's obligations to respond to and honor consumer rights requests under this Act:

(1) a period for a business to respond to a consumer for any verifiable consumer request may be extended by up to a total of 90 additional days where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of the requests. The business shall inform the consumer of any such extension within 45 days of receipt of the request, together with the reasons for the delay;

(2) if the business does not take action on the request of the consumer, the business shall inform the consumer, without delay and, at the latest, within the time permitted of response by this subsection, of the reasons for not taking action and any rights the consumer may have to appeal the decision to the business; and

(3) if requests from a consumer are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of their repetitive character, a business may either charge a reasonable fee, taking into account the administrative costs of providing the information or communication or taking the action requested, or refuse to act on the request and notify the consumer of the reason for refusing the request. The business shall bear the burden of demonstrating that any verifiable consumer request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

(i)(1) A business that discloses personal information to a service provider or contractor in compliance with this Act shall not be liable under this Act if the service provider or contractor receiving the personal information uses it in violation of the restrictions set forth in this Act, and if, at the time of disclosing the personal information, the business does not have actual knowledge, or reason to believe, that the service provider or contractor intends to commit such a violation. A service provider or contractor shall not be liable under this Act for the obligations of a business for which it provides services as set forth in this Act. The service provider or contractor shall be liable for its own violations of this Act.

(2) A business that discloses personal information of a consumer, with the exception of consumers who have exercised their right to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information, consumers who have limited the use or disclosure of their sensitive personal information, and minor consumers who have not opted-in to the collection or sale of their personal information, to a third party under a written contract that requires the third party to provide the same level of protection of the consumer's rights under this Act as provided by the business shall not be liable under this Act if the third party receiving the personal information uses it in violation of the restrictions set forth in this Act, and if, at the time of disclosing the personal information, the business does not have actual knowledge, or reason to believe, that the third party intends to commit such a violation.

(j) This Act shall not be construed to require a business, service provider, or contractor to:

(1) reidentify or otherwise link information that, in the ordinary course of business, is not maintained in a manner that would be considered personal information;

(2) retain any personal information about a consumer if, in the ordinary course of business, that information about the consumer would not be retained; or

(3) maintain information in identifiable, linkable, or associable form, or collect, obtain, retain, or access any data or technology, in order to be capable of linking or associating a verifiable consumer request with personal information.

(k) The rights afforded to consumers and the obligations imposed on the business in this Act shall not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of other natural persons. A verifiable consumer request for specific pieces of personal information, to delete personal information, or to correct inaccurate personal information shall not extend to personal information about the consumer that belongs to, or the business maintains on behalf of, another natural person. A business may rely on representations made in a verifiable consumer request as to rights with respect to personal information and is under no legal requirement to seek out other persons that may have or claim to have rights to personal information, and a business is under no legal obligation under this Act or any other provision of law to take any action under this Act if there is a dispute between or among persons claiming rights to personal information in the business' possession.

(l) The rights afforded to consumers and the obligations imposed on businesses under this Act shall not apply to the extent that they infringe on the noncommercial activities of a person or entity described in Section 4 of Article I of the Illinois Constitution.

(m) This Act shall not apply to:

(1) personal information that is collected by a business about a natural person in the course of the natural person acting as a job applicant to, employee of, owner of, director of, officer of, medical staff member of, or independent contractor of that business to the extent that the natural person's personal information is collected and used by the business solely within the context of the natural person's role or former role as a job applicant to, an employee of, owner of, director of, officer of, medical staff member of, or an independent contractor of, that business;

(2) personal information that is collected by a business that is emergency contact information of the natural person acting as a job applicant to, employee of, owner of, director of, officer of, medical staff member of, or independent contractor of that business to the extent that the personal information is collected and used solely within the context of having an emergency contact on file; or

(3) personal information that is necessary for the business to retain to administer benefits for another natural person relating to the natural person acting as a job applicant to, employee of, owner of, director of, officer of, medical staff member of, or independent contractor of that business to the extent that the personal information is collected and used solely within the context of administering those benefits.

This subsection shall not apply to subsection (a) of Section 10-5 or 10-60.

This subsection shall become inoperative on January 1, 2026.

(n) The obligations imposed on businesses by Sections 10-5, 10-10, 10-15, 10-20, 10-25, 10-35, 10-45, and 10-50 shall not apply to personal information reflecting a written or verbal communication or a transaction between the business and the consumer, where the consumer is a natural person who acted or is acting as an employee, owner, director, officer, or independent contractor of a company, partnership, sole proprietorship, nonprofit, or government agency and whose communications or transaction with the business occur solely within the context of the business conducting due diligence regarding, or providing or receiving a product or service to or from such company, partnership, sole proprietorship, nonprofit, or government agency.

This subsection shall become inoperative on January 1, 2026.

(o) Sections 10-10 and 10-30 shall not apply to a commercial credit reporting agency's collection, processing, sale, or disclosure of business controller information to the extent the commercial credit reporting agency uses the business controller information solely to identify the relationship of a consumer to a business that the consumer owns or contact the consumer only in the consumer's role as the owner, director, officer, or management employee of the business.

(p) The obligations imposed on businesses in Sections 10-10, 10-15, 10-20, and 10-25 shall not apply to household data.

(q) This Act does not require a business to comply with a verifiable consumer request to delete personal information to the extent the verifiable consumer request applies to a student's grades, educational scores, or educational test results that the business holds on behalf of a local educational agency at which the student is currently enrolled. If a business does not comply with a request under this Section, it shall notify the consumer that it is acting under this exception.

This Act does not require, in response to a request under Section 10-20, that a business disclose an educational standardized assessment or educational assessment or a consumer's specific responses to the educational standardized assessment or educational assessment if consumer access, possession, or control would jeopardize the validity and reliability of that educational standardized assessment or educational assessment. If a business does not comply with a request under this Section, it shall notify the consumer that it is acting under this exception.

(r) Sections 10-10 and 10-30 shall not apply to a business's use, disclosure, or sale of particular pieces of personal information if the consumer has consented to the business's use, disclosure, or sale of that personal information to produce a physical item, including a school yearbook containing the consumer's photograph, if:

(1) the business has incurred significant expense in reliance on the consumer's consent;

(2) compliance with the consumer's request to opt out of the sale of the personal information or to delete the personal information would not be commercially reasonable; and

(3) the business complies with the consumer's request as soon as it is commercially reasonable to do so.

Section 10-60. Personal information security breaches.

(a) Any consumer whose nonencrypted and nonredacted personal information or whose email address in combination with a password or security question and answer that would permit access to the account is subject to an unauthorized access and exfiltration, theft, or disclosure as a result of the business's violation of the duty to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information to protect the personal information may institute a civil action for:

(1) the recovery of damages in an amount not less than $100 and not greater than $750 per consumer per incident or actual damages, whichever is greater;

(2) injunctive or declaratory relief; or

(3) any other relief the court deems proper.

In assessing the amount of statutory damages, the court shall consider any one or more of the relevant circumstances presented by any of the parties to the case, including, but not limited to, the nature and seriousness of the misconduct, the number of violations, the persistence of the misconduct, the length of time over which the misconduct occurred, the willfulness of the defendant's misconduct, and the defendant's assets, liabilities, and net worth.

(b) Actions under this Section may be brought by a consumer if, prior to initiating any action against a business for statutory damages on an individual or classwide basis, a consumer provides a business 30 days' written notice identifying the specific provisions of this Act the consumer alleges have been or are being violated. If a cure is possible and if, within the 30 days, the business actually cures the noticed violation and provides the consumer an express written statement that the violations have been cured and that no further violations shall occur, no action for individual statutory damages or classwide statutory damages may be initiated against the business. The implementation and maintenance of reasonable security procedures and practices following a breach does not constitute a cure with respect to that breach. No notice shall be required prior to an individual consumer initiating an action solely for actual pecuniary damages suffered as a result of the alleged violations of this Act. If a business continues to violate this Act in breach of the express written statement provided to the consumer under this Section, the consumer may initiate an action against the business to enforce the written statement and may pursue statutory damages for each breach of the express written statement, as well as any other violation of this Act that postdates the written statement.

(c) The cause of action established by this Section shall apply only to violations as defined in subsection (a) and shall not be based on violations of any other Section of this Act. Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to serve as the basis for a private right of action under any other law. This shall not be construed to relieve any party from any duties or obligations imposed under other law or the United States or Illinois Constitution.

Section 10-65. Administrative enforcement.

(a) Any business, service provider, contractor, or other person that violates this Act shall be subject to an injunction and liable for an administrative fine of not more than $2,500 for each violation or $7,500 for each intentional violation or violations involving the personal information of consumers whom the business, service provider, contractor, or other person has actual knowledge are under 16 years of age in an administrative enforcement action brought by the Agency.

(b) Any administrative fine assessed for a violation of this Act, and the proceeds of any settlement of an action brought under subsection (a), shall be deposited into the Consumer Privacy Fund, with the intent to fully offset any costs incurred by the State courts, the Attorney General, and the Agency in connection with this Act.

Section 10-70. Consumer Privacy Fund.

(a) A special fund to be known as the Consumer Privacy Fund is hereby created within the State treasury, and is available upon appropriation by the General Assembly first to offset any costs incurred by the State courts in connection with actions brought to enforce this Act, the costs incurred by the Attorney General in carrying out the Attorney General's duties under this Act, and then for the purposes of establishing an investment fund in the State treasury, with any earnings or interest from the Fund to be deposited into the General Revenue Fund, and making grants to promote and protect consumer privacy, educate children in the area of online privacy, and fund cooperative programs with international law enforcement organizations to combat fraudulent activities with respect to consumer data breaches.

(b) Funds transferred to the Consumer Privacy Fund shall be used exclusively as follows:

(1) to offset any costs incurred by the State courts and the Attorney General in connection with this Act; and

(2) after satisfying the obligations under paragraph (1), the remaining funds shall be allocated each fiscal year as follows:

(A) 91% shall be invested by the Treasurer in financial assets with the goal of maximizing long term yields consistent with a prudent level of risk. The principal shall not be subject to transfer or appropriation, as long as any interest and earnings shall be transferred on an annual basis to the General Revenue Fund for appropriation by the General Assembly for General Revenue Fund purposes; and

(B) 9% shall be made available to the Agency for the purposes of making grants in this State, with 3% allocated to the following grant recipients:

(i) nonprofit organizations to promote and protect consumer privacy;

(ii) nonprofit organizations and public agencies, including school districts, to educate children in the area of online privacy; and

(iii) State and local law enforcement agencies to fund cooperative programs with international law enforcement organizations to combat fraudulent activities with respect to consumer data breaches.

(c) Funds in the Consumer Privacy Fund shall not be subject to appropriation or transfer by the General Assembly for any other purpose.

Section 10-75. Rules.

(a) By July 1, 2025, the Attorney General shall solicit broad public participation and adopt rules to further the purposes of this Act, including, but not limited to:

(1) updating or adding categories of personal information to the definition of personal information and updating or adding categories of sensitive personal information to the definition of sensitive personal information in order to address changes in technology, data collection practices, obstacles to implementation, and privacy concerns;

(2) updating as needed the definitions of deidentified and unique identifier to address changes in technology, data collection, obstacles to implementation, and privacy concerns and adding, modifying, or deleting categories to the definition of designated methods for submitting requests to facilitate a consumer's ability to obtain information from a business under Section 10-45. The authority to update the definition of deidentified shall not apply to deidentification standards set forth in Section 164.514 of Title 45 of the Code of Federal Regulations;

(3) establishing any exceptions necessary to comply with State or federal law, including, but not limited to, those relating to trade secrets and intellectual property rights, within one year of the effective date of this Act and as needed thereafter, with the intention that trade secrets should not be disclosed in response to a verifiable consumer request;

(4) establishing rules and procedures:

(A) to facilitate and govern the submission of a request by a consumer to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and to limit the use of sensitive personal information to ensure that consumers have the ability to exercise their choices without undue burden and to prevent business from engaging in deceptive or harassing conduct, including in retaliation against consumers for exercising their rights, while allowing businesses to inform consumers of the consequences of their decision to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information or to limit the use of their sensitive personal information;

(B) to govern business compliance with a consumer's opt-out request; and

(C) for the development and use of a recognizable and uniform opt-out logo or button by all businesses to promote consumer awareness of the opportunity to opt out of the sale of personal information;

(5) adjusting the monetary threshold in January of every odd-numbered year to reflect any increase in the Consumer Price Index, in the definition of business, subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of Section 10-60, subsection (a) of Section 10-65, Section 15-20, and subsection (a) of Section 15-85;

(6) establishing rules, procedures, and any exceptions necessary to ensure that the notices and information that businesses are required to provide under this Act are provided in a manner that may be easily understood by the average consumer, are accessible to consumers with disabilities, and are available in the language primarily used to interact with the consumer, including establishing rules and guidelines regarding financial incentives, within one year of the effective date of this Act and as needed thereafter;

(7) establishing rules and procedures to further the purposes of Sections 10-10, 10-15, 10-20, and 10-25 and to facilitate a consumer's or the consumer's authorized agent's ability to delete personal information, correct inaccurate personal information, or obtain information, with the goal of minimizing the administrative burden on a consumer, taking into account available technology, security concerns, and the burden on the business, to govern a business's determination that a request for information received from a consumer is a verifiable consumer request, including treating a request submitted through a password-protected account maintained by the consumer with the business while the consumer is logged into the account as a verifiable consumer request and providing a mechanism for a consumer who does not maintain an account with the business to request information through the business's authentication of the consumer's identity, within one year of the effective date of this Act and as needed thereafter;

(8) establishing how often, and under what circumstances, a consumer may request a correction under Section 10-15, including standards governing:

(A) how a business responds to a request for correction, including exceptions for requests to which a response is impossible or would involve disproportionate effort, and requests for correction of accurate information;

(B) how concerns regarding the accuracy of the information may be resolved;

(C) the steps a business may take to prevent fraud; and

(D) if a business rejects a request to correct personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer's health, the right of a consumer to provide a written addendum to the business with respect to any item or statement regarding any such personal information that the consumer believes to be incomplete or incorrect. The addendum shall be limited to 250 words per alleged incomplete or incorrect item and shall clearly indicate in writing that the consumer requests the addendum to be made a part of the consumer's record;

(9) establishing the standard to govern a business's determination that providing information beyond the 12-month period in a response to a verifiable consumer request is impossible or would involve a disproportionate effort;

(10) issuing rules further defining and adding to the business purposes, including other notified purposes, for which businesses, service providers, and contractors may use personal information consistent with consumers' expectations, and further defining the business purposes for which service providers and contractors may combine personal information obtained from different sources, except as provided for in the definition of business purposes;

(11) issuing rules identifying those business purposes, including other notified purposes, for which service providers and contractors may use consumers' personal information received under a written contract with a business, for the service provider or contractor's own business purposes, with the goal of maximizing consumer privacy;

(12) issuing rules to further define intentionally interacts with the goal of maximizing consumer privacy;

(13) issuing rules to further define precise geolocation, including if the size defined is not sufficient to protect consumer privacy in sparsely populated areas or when the personal information is used for normal operational purposes, including billing;

(14) issuing rules to define specific pieces of information obtained from the consumer with the goal of maximizing a consumer's right to access relevant personal information while minimizing the delivery of information to a consumer that would not be useful to the consumer, including system log information and other technical data. For delivery of the most sensitive personal information, the rules may require a higher standard of authentication as long as the Agency shall monitor the impact of the higher standard on the right of consumers to obtain their personal information to ensure that the requirements of verification do not result in the unreasonable denial of verifiable consumer requests;

(15) issuing rules requiring businesses whose processing of personal information presents significant risk to consumers' privacy or security, to:

(A) perform a cybersecurity audit on an annual basis, including defining the scope of the audit and establishing a process to ensure that audits are thorough and independent. The factors to be considered in determining when processing may result in significant risk to the security of personal information shall include the size and complexity of the business and the nature and scope of processing activities; and

(B) submit to the Agency on a regular basis a risk assessment with respect to their processing of personal information, including whether the processing involves sensitive personal information, and identifying and weighing the benefits resulting from the processing to the business, the consumer, other stakeholders, and the public, against the potential risks to the rights of the consumer associated with that processing, with the goal of restricting or prohibiting the processing if the risks to privacy of the consumer outweigh the benefits resulting from processing to the consumer, the business, other stakeholders, and the public. Nothing in this Section shall require a business to divulge trade secrets;

(16) issuing rules governing access and opt-out rights with respect to a business's use of automated decision-making technology, including profiling and requiring business's response to access requests to include meaningful information about the logic involved in those decision-making processes, as well as a description of the likely outcome of the process with respect to the consumer;

(17) issuing rules to further define a law enforcement agency-approved investigation for purposes of the exception in paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of Section 10-55;

(18) issuing rules to define the scope and process for the exercise of the Agency's audit authority, to establish criteria for selection of persons to audit, and to protect consumers' personal information from disclosure to an auditor in the absence of a court order, warrant, or subpoena;

(19) (A) issuing rules to define the requirements and technical specifications for an opt-out preference signal sent by a platform, technology, or mechanism, to indicate a consumer's intent to opt out of the sale or sharing of the personal information and to limit the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information. The requirements and specifications for the opt-out preference signal should be updated from time to time to reflect the means by which consumers interact with businesses, and should:

(i) ensure that the manufacturer of a platform or browser or device that sends the opt-out preference signal cannot unfairly disadvantage another business;

(ii) ensure that the opt-out preference signal is consumer-friendly, clearly described, and easy to use by an average consumer and does not require that the consumer provide additional information beyond what is necessary;

(iii) clearly represent a consumer's intent and be free of defaults constraining or presupposing that intent;

(iv) ensure that the opt-out preference signal does not conflict with other commonly used privacy settings or tools that consumers may employ;

(v) provide a mechanism for the consumer to selectively consent to a business's sale of the personal information or the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information without affecting the consumer's preferences with respect to other businesses or disabling the opt-out preference signal globally; and

(vi) state that in the case of a page or setting view that the consumer accesses to set the opt-out preference signal, the consumer should see up to 3 choices, including:

(I) a global opt-out from sale and sharing of personal information, including a direction to limit the use of sensitive personal information;

(II) a choice to "Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information"; and

(III) a choice to "Do Not Sell or Do Not Share My Personal Information for Cross-Context Behavioral Advertising";

(B) issuing rules to establish technical specifications for an opt-out preference signal that allows the consumer, or the consumer's parent or guardian, to specify that the consumer is less than 13 years of age or at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age; and

(C) issuing rules, with the goal of strengthening consumer privacy while considering the legitimate operational interests of businesses, to govern the use or disclosure of sensitive personal information, notwithstanding the consumer's direction to limit the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information, including:

(i) determining any additional purposes for which a business may use or disclose sensitive personal information;

(ii) determining the scope of activities permitted under the definition of business purposes, as authorized by subsection (a) of Section 10-35, to ensure that the activities do not involve health-related research;

(iii) ensuring the functionality of the business' operations; and

(iv) ensuring that the exemption in subsection (d) of Section 10-35 for sensitive personal information applies to sensitive personal information that is collected or processed incidentally, or without the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer, while ensuring that businesses do not use the exemption for the purpose of evading consumers' rights to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information under Section 10-35;

(20) issuing rules to govern how a business that has elected to comply with subsection (b) of Section 10-50 responds to the opt-out preference signal and provides consumers with the opportunity subsequently to consent to the sale or sharing of their personal information or the use and disclosure of their sensitive personal information for purposes in addition to those authorized by subsection (a) of Section 10-50. The rules should:

(A) strive to promote competition and consumer choice and be technology neutral;

(B) ensure that the business does not respond to an opt-out preference signal by:

(i) intentionally degrading the functionality of the consumer experience;

(ii) charging the consumer a fee in response to the consumer's opt-out preferences;

(iii) making any products or services not function properly or fully for the consumer, as compared to consumers who do not use the opt-out preference signal;

(iv) attempting to coerce the consumer to opt in to the sale or sharing of the personal information, or the use or disclosure of the sensitive personal information, by stating or implying that the use of the opt-out preference signal will adversely affect the consumer as compared to consumers who do not use the opt-out preference signal, including stating or implying that the consumer will not be able to use the business' products or services or that those products or services may not function properly or fully; and

(v) displaying any notification or pop-up in response to the consumer's opt-out preference signal;

(C) ensure that any link to a webpage or its supporting content that allows the consumer to consent to opt in:

(i) is not part of a pop-up, notice, banner, or other intrusive design that obscures any part of the webpage the consumer intended to visit from full view or that interferes with or impedes in any way the consumer's experience visiting or browsing the webpage or website the consumer intended to visit;

(ii) does not require or imply that the consumer must click the link to receive full functionality of any products or services, including the website;

(iii) does not make use of any dark patterns; and

(iv) applies only to the business with which the consumer intends to interact; and

(D) strive to curb coercive or deceptive practices in response to an opt-out preference signal but should not unduly restrict businesses that are trying in good faith to comply with Section 10-50;

(21) reviewing existing Illinois Insurance Code provisions and rules relating to consumer privacy, except those relating to insurance rates or pricing, to determine whether any provisions of the Illinois Insurance Code provide greater protection to consumers than the provisions of this Act. Upon completing its review, the Agency shall adopt a rule that applies only the more protective provisions of this Act to insurance companies. The Director of Insurance shall have jurisdiction over insurance rates and pricing; and

(22) harmonizing the rules governing opt-out mechanisms, notices to consumers, and other operational mechanisms in this Act to promote clarity and the functionality of this Act for consumers.

(b) The Attorney General may adopt additional rules as necessary to further the purposes of this Act.

(c) The Attorney General shall not bring an enforcement action under this Act until 6 months after the publication of the final rules adopted under this Section or July 1, 2025, whichever is sooner.

(d) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the timeline for adopting final rules required by the Act shall be July 1, 2025. Beginning the later of July 1, 2025, or 6 months after the Agency provides notice to the Attorney General that it is prepared to begin rulemaking under this Act, the authority assigned to the Attorney General to adopt rules under this Section shall be exercised by the Agency. Notwithstanding any other law, civil and administrative enforcement of the provisions of law added or amended by this Act shall not commence until July 1, 2025, and shall only apply to violations occurring on or after that date.

Section 10-80. Anti-avoidance. A court or the Agency shall disregard the intermediate steps or transactions for purposes of effectuating the purposes of this Act:

(1) if a series of steps or transactions were component parts of a single transaction intended from the beginning to be taken with the intention of avoiding the reach of this Act, including the disclosure of personal information by a business to a third party in order to avoid the definition of sell or share; or

(2) if steps or transactions were taken to purposely avoid the definition of sell or share by eliminating any monetary or other valuable consideration, including by entering into contracts that do not include an exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration, but where a party is obtaining something of value or use.

Section 10-85. Waiver. Any provision of a contract or agreement of any kind, including a representative action waiver, that purports to waive or limit in any way a consumer's rights under this Act, including, but not limited to, any right to a remedy or means of enforcement, shall be deemed contrary to public policy and shall be void and unenforceable. This Section shall not prevent a consumer from declining to request personal information from a business, declining to opt out of a business's sale of the personal information, or authorizing a business to sell or share the personal information after previously opting-out.

Section 10-90. Good faith cooperation. The Agency, and any court, as applicable, shall consider the good faith cooperation of the business, service provider, contractor, or other person in determining the amount of any administrative fine or civil penalty for a violation of this Act. A business shall not be required by the Agency, a court, or otherwise to pay both an administrative fine and a civil penalty for the same violation.

Section 10-95. Remedies.

(a) Any business, service provider, contractor, or other person that violates this Act shall be subject to an injunction and liable for a civil penalty of not more than $2,500 for each violation or $7,500 for each intentional violation and each violation involving the personal information of minor consumers, as adjusted by rule, which shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought by the Attorney General. The court may consider the good faith cooperation of the business, service provider, contractor, or other person in determining the amount of the civil penalty.

(b) Any civil penalty recovered by an action brought by the Attorney General for a violation of this Act, and the proceeds of any settlement of any said action, shall be deposited into the Consumer Privacy Fund.

(c) The Agency shall, upon request by the Attorney General, stay an administrative action or investigation under this Act to permit the Attorney General to proceed with an investigation or civil action and shall not pursue an administrative action or investigation, unless the Attorney General subsequently determines not to pursue an investigation or civil action. The Agency may not limit the authority of the Attorney General to enforce this Act.

(d) No civil action may be filed by the Attorney General under this Section for any violation of this Act after the Agency has issued a decision under Section 15-80 or an order under Section 15-50 against that person for the same violation.

(e) This Section shall not affect the private right of action provided for in Section 10-60.

Article 15. Privacy Protection Agency

Section 15-5. Establishment of Privacy Protection Agency.

(a) There is hereby established the Privacy Protection Agency, which is vested with full administrative power, authority, and jurisdiction to implement and enforce this Act. The Agency shall be governed by a 5-member board, including the chairperson. The chairperson and one member of the Board shall be appointed by the Governor. The Attorney General, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House shall each appoint one member to the Board. These appointments should be made from among State residents with expertise in the areas of privacy, technology, and consumer rights.

(b) The initial appointments to the Board shall be made within 90 days of the effective date of this Act.

Section 15-10. Member requirements. Members of the Board shall:

(1) have qualifications, experience, and skills, in particular in the areas of privacy and technology, required to perform the duties of the Agency and exercise its powers;

(2) maintain the confidentiality of information which has come to their knowledge in the course of the performance of their tasks or exercise of their powers, except to the extent that disclosure is required by the Freedom of Information Act;

(3) remain free from external influence, whether direct or indirect, and shall neither seek nor take instructions from another;

(4) refrain from any action incompatible with their duties and engaging in any incompatible occupation, whether gainful or not, during their term;

(5) have the right of access to all information made available by the Agency to the chairperson;

(6) be precluded, for a period of one year after leaving office, from accepting employment with a business that was subject to an enforcement action or civil action under this Act during the member's tenure or during the 5-year period preceding the member's appointment; and

(7) be precluded for a period of 2 years after leaving office from acting, for compensation, as an agent or attorney for, or otherwise representing, any other person in a matter pending before the Agency if the purpose is to influence an action of the Agency.

Section 15-15. Terms. Members of the Board, including the chairperson, shall serve at the pleasure of their appointing authority but shall serve for no longer than 8 consecutive years.

Section 15-20. Compensation. For each day on which they engage in official duties, members of the Board shall be compensated at the rate of $100, adjusted biennially to reflect changes in the cost of living, and shall be reimbursed for expenses incurred in performance of their official duties.

Section 15-25. Executive director, officers, counsel, and employees. The Board shall appoint an executive director who shall act in accordance with Agency policies and rules and with applicable law. The Agency shall appoint and discharge officers, counsel, and employees, consistent with applicable civil service laws, and shall fix the compensation of employees and prescribe their duties. The Agency may contract for services that cannot be provided by its employees.

Section 15-30. Authority. The Board may delegate authority to the chairperson or the executive director to act in the name of the Agency between meetings of the Agency, except with respect to resolution of enforcement actions and rulemaking authority.

Section 15-35. Functions. The Agency shall perform the following functions:

(1) administer, implement, and enforce through administrative actions this Act;

(2) on and after the earlier of July 1, 2025, or within 6 months of the Agency providing the Attorney General with notice that it is prepared to assume rulemaking responsibilities under this Act, adopt, amend, and rescind rules under Section 10-75 to carry out the purposes and provisions of this Act, including rules specifying recordkeeping requirements for businesses to ensure compliance with this Act;

(3) through the implementation of this Act, protect the fundamental privacy rights of natural persons with respect to the use of their personal information;

(4) promote public awareness and understanding of the risks, rules, responsibilities, safeguards, and rights in relation to the collection, use, sale, and disclosure of personal information, including the rights of minors with respect to their own information, and provide a public report summarizing the risk assessments filed with the Agency while ensuring that data security is not compromised;

(5) provide guidance to consumers regarding their rights under this Act;

(6) provide guidance to businesses regarding their duties and responsibilities under this Act and appoint a Chief Privacy Auditor to conduct audits of businesses to ensure compliance with this Act;

(7) provide technical assistance and advice to the General Assembly, upon request, with respect to privacy-related legislation;

(8) monitor relevant developments relating to the protection of personal information and in particular, the development of information and communication technologies and commercial practices;

(9) cooperate with other agencies with jurisdiction over privacy laws and with data processing authorities in this State, other states, territories, and countries to ensure consistent application of privacy protections;

(10) establish a mechanism under which persons doing business in this State that do not meet the definition of business may voluntarily certify that they are in compliance with this Act, and make a list of those entities available to the public;

(11) solicit, review, and approve applications for grants to the extent funds are available under paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of Section 10-70; and

(12) perform all other acts necessary or appropriate in the exercise of its power, authority, and jurisdiction and seek to balance the goals of strengthening consumer privacy while giving attention to the impact on businesses.

Section 15-40. Investigation of violations.

(a) Upon the sworn complaint of any person or on its own initiative, the Agency may investigate possible violations of this Act relating to any business, service provider, contractor, or person. The Agency may decide not to investigate a complaint or decide to provide a business with a period to cure the alleged violation. In making a decision not to investigate or provide more time to cure, the Agency may consider:

(1) the lack of intent to violate this Act; and

(2) the voluntary efforts undertaken by the business, service provider, contractor, or person to cure the alleged violation prior to being notified by the Agency of the complaint.

(b) The Agency shall notify in writing the person who made the complaint of the action, if any, the Agency has taken or plans to take on the complaint, together with the reasons for that action or nonaction.

Section 15-45. Notice. No finding of probable cause to believe this Act has been violated shall be made by the Agency unless, at least 30 days prior to the Agency's consideration of the alleged violation, the business, service provider, contractor, or person alleged to have violated this Act is notified of the violation by service of process or registered mail with return receipt requested, provided with a summary of the evidence, and informed of their right to be present in person and represented by counsel at any proceeding of the Agency held for the purpose of considering whether probable cause exists for believing the person violated this Act. Notice to the alleged violator shall be deemed made on the date of service, the date the registered mail receipt is signed, or if the registered mail receipt is not signed, the date returned by the post office. A proceeding held for the purpose of considering probable cause shall be private unless the alleged violator files with the Agency a written request that the proceeding be public.

Section 15-50. Procedure.

(a) If the Agency determines there is probable cause for believing this Act has been violated, it shall hold a hearing to determine if a violation or violations have occurred. Notice shall be given and the hearing conducted in accordance with the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act. The Agency shall have all the powers granted by that Act. If the Agency determines on the basis of the hearing conducted under this subsection that a violation or violations have occurred, it shall issue an order that may require the violator to do all or any of the following:

(1) cease and desist violation of this Act; or

(2) subject to Section 10-65, pay an administrative fine of up to $2,500 for each violation, or up to $7,500 for each intentional violation and each violation involving the personal information of minor consumers to the Consumer Privacy Fund.

If the Agency determines that no violation has occurred, it shall publish a declaration so stating.

(b) If 2 or more persons are responsible for any violation or violations, they shall be jointly and severally liable.

Section 15-55. Rejection of administrative law decision. Whenever the Agency rejects the decision of an administrative law judge, the Agency shall state the reasons in writing for rejecting the decision.

Section 15-60. Subpoenas and evidence. The Agency may subpoena witnesses, compel their attendance and testimony, administer oaths and affirmations, take evidence and require by subpoena the production of any books, papers, records, or other items material to the performance of the Agency's duties or exercise of its powers, including, but not limited to, its power to audit a business's compliance with this Act.

Section 15-65. Limitations. No administrative action brought under this Act alleging a violation of any of the provisions of this Act shall be commenced more than 5 years after the date on which the violation occurred.

(1) The service of the probable cause hearing notice upon the person alleged to have violated this Act shall constitute the commencement of the administrative action.

(2) If the person alleged to have violated this Act engages in the fraudulent concealment of the person's acts or identity, the 5-year period shall be tolled for the period of the concealment.

(3) If, upon being ordered by a court to produce any documents sought by a subpoena in any administrative proceeding under this Act and the person alleged to have violated this Act fails to produce documents in response to the order by the date ordered to comply therewith, the 5-year period shall be tolled for the period of the delay from the date of filing of the motion to compel until the date the documents are produced.

Section 15-70. Collection of administrative fines.

(a) In addition to any other available remedies, the Agency may bring a civil action and obtain a judgment in court for the purpose of collecting any unpaid administrative fines imposed under this Act after exhaustion of judicial review of the Agency's action. The venue for this action shall be in the county where the administrative fines were imposed by the Agency. In order to obtain a judgment in a proceeding under this Section, the Agency shall show, following the procedures and rules of evidence as applied in ordinary civil actions:

(1) that the administrative fines were imposed following the procedures set forth in this Act and implementing rules;

(2) that the defendant or defendants in the action were notified, by actual or constructive notice, of the imposition of the administrative fines; and

(3) that a demand for payment has been made by the Agency and full payment has not been received.

(b) A civil action brought under subsection (a) shall be commenced within 4 years after the date on which the administrative fines were imposed.

Section 15-75. Judgment.

(a) If the time for judicial review of a final Agency order or decision has lapsed, or if all means of judicial review of the order or decision have been exhausted, the Agency may apply to the clerk of the court for a judgment to collect the administrative fines imposed by the order or decision, or the order as modified in accordance with a decision on judicial review.

(b) The application, which shall include a certified copy of the order or decision, or the order as modified in accordance with a decision on judicial review, and proof of service of the order or decision, constitutes a sufficient showing to warrant issuance of the judgment to collect the administrative fines. The clerk of the court shall enter the judgment immediately in conformity with the application.

(c) An application made under this Section shall be made to the clerk of the court in the county where the administrative fines were imposed by the Agency.

(d) A judgment entered in accordance with this Section has the same force and effect as, and is subject to all the provisions of law relating to, a judgment in a civil action and may be enforced in the same manner as any other judgment of the court in which it is entered.

(e) The Agency may bring an application under this Section only within 4 years after the date on which all means of judicial review of the order or decision have been exhausted.

(f) The remedies available under this Section are in addition to those available under any other law.

Section 15-80. Judicial review. Any decision of the Agency with respect to a complaint or administrative fine shall be subject to judicial review in an action brought by an interested party to the complaint or administrative fine and shall be subject to an abuse of discretion standard.

Article 20. Miscellaneous

Section 20-5. Conflicting provisions. This Act is intended to further the constitutional right of privacy and to supplement existing laws relating to personal information. The provisions of this Act are not limited to information collected electronically or over the Internet, but apply to the collection and sale of all personal information collected by a business from consumers. Wherever possible, law relating to personal information should be construed to harmonize with the provisions of this Act, but if a conflict between other laws and the provisions of this Act, the provisions of the law that afford the greatest protection for the right of privacy for consumers shall control.

Section 20-10. Preemption. This Act is a matter of statewide concern and supersedes and preempts all rules, regulations, codes, ordinances, and other laws adopted by a city, county, municipality, or local agency regarding the collection and sale of consumers' personal information by a business.

Section 20-15. Severability. The provisions of this Act are severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.

Section 20-20. Standing. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if the State or any of its officials fail to defend the constitutionality of this Act, any other governmental agency of this State shall have the authority to intervene in any court action challenging the constitutionality of this Act for the purpose of defending its constitutionality, whether that action is in State or federal trial court, on appeal, or on discretionary review by the Illinois Supreme Court or the Supreme Court of the United States. The reasonable fees and costs of defending the action shall be a charge on funds appropriated to the Office of the Attorney General, which shall be satisfied promptly.

Section 20-25. Construction. This Act shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes.

Section 20-30. Saving clause. This Act is intended to supplement federal and State law, where permissible, but shall not apply if that application is preempted by, or in conflict with, federal law or the Illinois Constitution. The provisions of this Act relating to children under 16 years of age shall only apply to the extent not in conflict with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

Article 25. Amendatory Provisions

Section 25-5. The State Finance Act is amended by adding Section 5.1015 as follows:

(30 ILCS 105/5.1015 new)

Sec. 5.1015. The Consumer Privacy Fund.