California Surveillance Pricing Measure Held Back by Sponsor

A California privacy measure that would ban data-driven pricing won’t advance this year, the sponsor first told Bloomberg Government Thursday.

Assemblymember Chris Ward (D) said in a statement that he won’t attempt to push forward his first-in-the-nation bill (AB 446) this year after the Senate Appropriations Committee narrowed the measure on Aug. 29. His decision effectively kills the bill.

The bill would have been the nation’s most comprehensive effort to ban surveillance pricing, a practice where a company charges different prices to consumers based on their personal data. The Senate panel significantly reduced the bill to apply only ...