Comprehensive State Consumer Privacy Laws: HireRight’s Newest Whitepaper
Learn about laws in states that have enacted comprehensive privacy legislation with HireRight’s newly released whitepaper.
Did you know that many states across the United States have enacted comprehensive consumer privacy laws? Did you know that these laws usually have exceptions that mean they don’t apply to most background screening?
To help our customers in the ongoing effort of monitoring legislation, HireRight has prepared a summary of comprehensive state-level consumer privacy laws from across the United States and the exceptions in those laws that might apply to background screening. From covering definitions of privacy laws, privacy notice requirements, and consumer rights to providing understandable summaries of 19 individual jurisdictions, this whitepaper is designed to provide readers with an overview of some key pieces of information on these laws in an intuitive, easy-to-read format.
It's important to note, this summary is designed to provide a quick outline of select provisions of comprehensive privacy laws in states that have enacted them as of the date of this publication. It is not a comprehensive review of all restrictions or requirements these laws impose, and HireRight assumes no obligation to notify customers of proposed or enacted updates to this legislation.
Download our comprehensive guide to U.S. state privacy laws here
What Are Comprehensive State Consumer Privacy Laws?
General privacy laws in the U.S. aren’t a new trend. You can find privacy laws at both the federal and state level, governing things like consumer reporting (also known as background screening), driving records, educational records, biometrics, and much more. Comprehensive consumer privacy laws, however, are a relatively new and growing trend in the U.S..
The difference between comprehensive privacy laws and other U.S. privacy laws is that comprehensive privacy laws are not limited in scope to one type of data or industry. Instead, they provide consumers with a wide range of rights related to many different types of personal data on a broader scale. As of when we drafted the whitepaper and wrote this blog, comprehensive consumer privacy laws exist only at the state level - there is no federal-level comprehensive consumer privacy law on the books in the United States.
The rights of consumers under comprehensive privacy laws typically vary from state to state, with some able to be summarized into just a few categories. This can include the right to access, right to correct, right to opt-out, and right to delete, to name a few. It is important to remember there are variances to these rights from state to state and that our whitepaper is for informational purposes only – it is not legal advice. So, we recommend you review the law in each specific state and consult with your legal counsel for details.
For each jurisdiction in the whitepaper, we summarize the following information, to the extent applicable:
The citation and link to the law
The law’s effective date
The scope
Select exemptions
Consumer rights
Appeal processes
Penalties
Regulations
And more...
Summarized State Consumer Privacy Laws: By Jurisdiction
Below are the states that have enacted comprehensive consumer privacy laws as of the drafting of our whitepaper. The years in which these laws become effective directly follow.
Here’s a list of all the jurisdictions our whitepaper summarizes:
California (2023)
Colorado (2023)
Connecticut (2020)
Delaware (2025)
Indiana (2026)
Iowa (2025)
Kentucky (2026)
Maryland (2025)
Minnesota (2025)
Montana (2024)
Nebraska (2025)
New Hampshire (2025)
New Jersey (2025)
Oregon (2024)
Rhode Island (2026)
Tennessee (2025)
Texas (2024)
Utah (2023)
Virginia (2023)
Understanding the evolving landscape around privacy laws and regulations and how they may interact with background screening and employee data can be intimidating. Whether you want to identify general jurisdictions that have comprehensive state privacy laws or learn more about a specific state and their unique requirements, this whitepaper can be a great place to start.
Interested in learning more about consumer privacy laws at the state level?
Release Date: September 18, 2025
Nicole Campion
Nicole Campion is Associate Counsel at HireRight, with a focus on U.S. compliance for the organization. Nicole earned her Juris Doctorate from Albany Law School and is licensed to practice law in the state of South Carolina. She is an active member of the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) and currently holds an FCRA Advanced Certification through the PBSA, along with a GRC Professional Certification from OCEG and a both CIPP/US and CIPM certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.