Talked to multiple news outlets on state data privacy laws today and I have two big takeaways for them:

States are taking action because Congress hasn't prioritized privacy law changes

Not all these bills are copies of CCPA and we shouldn't treat them like they are

Policy abhors a vaccuum and in the absence of congressional leadership and with the collapse of negotiations it's not a surprise that states are leading the charge.

What is surprising is the type of states that are leading on it. It signals to me that state lawmakers and leaders now see state privacy as far more politically salient than they did in 2018 or 2019.

Why though? That's what I'm not sure about.

Like, there were CCPA-lite bills on the state level in 2019 that just didn't go anywhere.

Something happened in 2020 - the pandemic? better lobbying? interest in other tech issues? - that made lawmakers see this as an issue that demanded attention and action.

And finally, not all these bills are copies of the CCPA or have the same regulatory complexity. As @joejerome has mentioned, some of the are just copies of the Washington Privacy Act instead!