• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 18, 2017

Opponents to a pending location-privacy bill in Illinois argue in a new campaign that the measure will put consumers at risk of fraud.

The bill, which is awaiting the signature of Governor Bruce Rauner, requires app developers, ad networks and other online companies to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before collecting or disclosing information about their physical locations. The measure appears to be the first of its kind in the U.S.

Critics, including a new group called the Illinois Data Security Alliance, are now arguing on Facebook and other sites that the measure "forces users to review additional complex disclosures and puts them at risk of fraud."

Those claims have left some privacy advocates fuming. "It is impossible that a bill that would make companies be transparent about what they're doing with the information would put consumers at risk for fraud," says Ari Scharg, a privacy lawyer who heads the advocacy group Digital Privacy Alliance. "In light of the Equifax breach, those messages are dangerous to people."

The opponents' tactic is similar to one used recently in California, where lawmakers late Friday shelved a privacy bill that would have prohibited broadband providers from drawing on consumers' web-surfing history for ad purposes without their explicit consent. In that state, opponents argued that the bill would result in a deluge of pop-ups, as broadband carriers continuously sought their subscribers' consent to tracking. Those pop-ups would "de-sensitize" consumers to actual security risks, the Association of National Advertisers and other opponents argued.

Groups opposing the Illinois law include the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Internet Association (which represents many of Silicon Valley's largest companies), NetChoice (which represents ecommerce companies) and ACT, The App Association (which represents app developers and tech companies).

More than two dozen representatives of organizations and tech companies, including search engine Duck Duck Go, have so far signed an open letter supporting the bill.

Illinois lawmakers passed the bill in June and sent it to Gov. Bruce Rauner the following month. He has until September 25 to either veto the bill or sign it into law.