California online privacy bill dies in State Senate

An online privacy bill that would have dramatically changed how companies collect consumers' information online stalled in the California State Senate on Friday.

The Sacramento Bee reports a measure from State Sen. Ellen Corbett (D) that would have required users to opt-in to reveal anything more than their name and city of residence. The measure was rejected in the State Senate by a vote of 19-17.

The bill also created a process for users to remove information from a website that drew objections from Web firms, many of which are based in California. Corbett agreed to drop the fine for failing to respond to a removal request within 96 hours from $10,000 to $1,000 to no avail.

Like data breach notification there is currently no national law governing how companies must treat data collected from consumers online. Legislative debate on the issue has heated up in both chambers, with several privacy bills currently in front of both the House and the Senate.