Some New York state lawmakers are proposing to tax companies that glean income from
consumers' data.
On Tuesday, Assembly member Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway Beach) introduced Assembly Bill A09112, which would impose a 5% tax on gross revenues of all corporations that
derive income from data shared with them by state residents, and would establish a “data fund” to distribute the tax to residents.
“New York's consumers should also be able
to share in the wealth that is created from their data,” Pheffer Amato's memo in support of the bill states. “Turn on your phone, check your email, watch TV, browse the web, drive through
a toll or, talk to a friend on the phone. In all of these activities, data about our actions, behaviors, likes and dislikes, mood and feelings, purchases and choices are being recorded by a huge
variety of organizations that never will inform you of the data they collect, sell and share.”
The bill is a companion to one introduced last year in the state Senate by David Carlucci
(D-Rockland/Westchester).
Carlucci's bill was seen as a long shot. State Senator Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) told News 12 Long Island in December that the proposed tax could
keep tech companies out of the state.
New York politicians aren't the only ones to float the idea of a data tax. Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom suggested that Silicon Valley
companies should pay residents a “data dividend” to compensate them for their information.
"California's consumers should also be able to share in the wealth that is created from
their data," Newsom said last February. He didn't elaborate on his proposal
other than to say that California could “do something bold in this space.”