Massachusetts Data Privacy Conference Committee Holds First Meeting, Begins Bill Reconciliation

BOSTON — July 7, 2026 — Massachusetts lawmakers opened conference committee work Monday aimed at reconciling two competing data privacy bills that would give residents new rights over their personal information. Representative Michael Moran, the House majority leader and House chair of the committee, and Senator Cindy Creem, the Senate chair, led a section-by-section review of House Bill 5479 and Senate Bill 2619, working through more than 74 definitional items in the bills' Section 1 alone. Creem called the legislation critical to ending practices in which "tech giants have profited off of our personal information without transparency, accountability, or limitation," while Representative Trisha Fowley-Bouvier, the House Technology and Advanced Information Technology Committee chair who has spent roughly three years on the bill, said "the consumer is at the very center of this bill." Staff from both chambers were directed to resolve a recurring drafting conflict — the House's use of "consumer" versus the Senate's "individual" — across the entire text, along with differences in how the two bills cite federal laws such as HIPAA and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. No votes were taken; a second hearing will be scheduled once staff complete their reconciliation work.