• by Wendy Davis , February 27, 2026

Lawmakers in Virginia's house on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that would ban businesses from selling data that can pinpoint people's locations within a 1,750-foot radius.

The state senate unanimously passed a near-identical version of the bill (SB 338) earlier this month. The measure now returns to the senate for final approval.

Two other states -- Maryland and Oregon -- have passed comparable bans on the sale of location data.

The Virginia bill, introduced by state Senator Russet Perry, would revise the state's existing privacy law, which requires businesses to obtain consumers' consent before selling "precise" location data, but doesn't outright prohibit the sale of such data.

Speaking this week at a House hearing, Perry described the proposed law as a "straightforward consumer protection bill."

The bill "addresses one of the most dangerous and least understood threats to privacy in today's data economy -- the sale of Virginian's precise geolocation data," she said.

"Geolocation data is not like a name on a mailing list. It is a digital tracking device that can reveal where someone lives, where they work, where their children go to school, where they worship hat drs they visit, and what places they return to again and again," Perry said at the hearing.

"It can be purchased, sold and packaged quietly by companies that never once meet the consumers whose movements they are profiting from," she said, adding: "It can be used to identify people at sensitive locations and target them with manipulation ... or intimidation."

Ad industry groups opposed the bill, saying in a February 23 letter to lawmakers that it "would unnecessarily disrupt data practices that allow companies to reach consumers with relevant content and advertising, enabling consumers to learn about goods and services that are near to them."

"Without the ability to disclose precise geolocation data for advertising purposes, subject to consumers’ opt-in consent, businesses will have a more difficult time, and face higher costs, reaching individuals with relevant marketing, and Virginia consumers will not be alerted to products and services they desire that are near to them," the Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies, American Advertising Federation and Digital Advertising Alliance wrote.

Watchdogs including the Electronic Information Privacy Center and Consumer Reports support the legislation.

"Many apps are sending your precise location data back to third parties you've never even heard of," Electronic Privacy Information Center deputy director Caitriona Fitzgerald told lawmakers.

"At a time when we're all concerned with affordability that data is being abused to raise the cost of everything from insurance to groceries," she said, adding that Texas sued AllState last year for allegedly gathering location data from mobile apps, and then using the information to raise people's rates.

"Creating stronger protections for location data shouldn't be a controversial idea," Matt Schwartz, a policy analyst with Consumer Reports told lawmakers. "The weather app on your phone might need access to your location information to give you an accurate forecast, but it shouldn't be selling that data to dozens of companies behind your back."