The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 9 : Commerce and Trade

Chapter 061a : Data Privacy [Effective January 1, 2028]

Subchapter 001 : Vermont Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act [Effective January 1, 2028]

• § 2415g. Data protection and impact assessments; disclosure to Attorney General [Effective January 1, 2028]

  (a) Generally. A controller shall conduct and document a data protection assessment for each of the controller’s processing activities that presents a heightened risk of harm to a consumer, which for the purposes of this section includes:

  (1) the processing of personal data for the purposes of targeted advertising;

  (2) the sale of personal data;

  (3) the processing of personal data for the purposes of profiling, if the profiling presents a reasonably foreseeable risk of:

  (A) unfair or deceptive treatment of, or unlawful disparate impact on, a consumer;

  (B) financial, physical, or reputational injury to a consumer;

  (C) a physical or other intrusion upon the solitude or seclusion, or the private affairs or concerns, of a consumer, if the intrusion would be offensive to a reasonable person; or

  (D) other substantial injury to a consumer; and

  (4) the processing of sensitive data.

  (b) Requirements.

  (1) Data protection assessments conducted pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall identify and weigh the benefits that may flow, directly and indirectly, from the processing to the controller, the consumer, other stakeholders, and the public against the potential risks to the rights of the consumer associated with the processing, as mitigated by safeguards that can be employed by the controller to reduce the risks.

  (2) The controller shall factor into each data protection assessment the use of deidentified data and the reasonable expectations of consumers, as well as the context of the processing and the relationship between the controller and the consumer whose personal data will be processed.

  (c) Impact assessments for profiling. Each controller that engages in any profiling for the purposes of making a decision that produces any legal or similarly significant effect concerning a consumer shall conduct an impact assessment for the profiling. The impact assessment shall include, to the extent reasonably known by or available to the controller, as applicable:

  (1) a statement by the controller disclosing the purpose, intended use cases, and deployment context of, and benefits afforded by, the profiling;

  (2) an analysis of whether the profiling poses any known or reasonably foreseeable heightened risk of harm to a consumer, and, if so:

  (A) the nature of such heightened risk of harm to a consumer; and

  (B) the steps that have been taken to mitigate such heightened risk of harm to a consumer;

  (3) a description of:

  (A) the main categories of personal data processed as inputs for the purposes of such profiling; and

  (B) the outputs such profiling produces;

  (4) an overview of the main categories of personal data the controller used to customize the profiling, if the controller used data to customize the profiling;

  (5) any metrics used to evaluate the performance and known limitations of the profiling;

  (6) a description of any transparency measures taken concerning the profiling, including any measures taken to disclose to consumers that the controller is engaged in profiling while the controller is engaged in the profiling; and

  (7) a description of the postdeployment monitoring and user safeguards provided concerning such profiling, including the oversight, use, and learning processes established by the controller to address issues arising from such profiling.

  (d) Disclosure to Attorney General.

  (1) The Attorney General may require that a controller disclose any data protection or impact assessment that is relevant to an investigation conducted by the Attorney General, and the controller shall make the data protection or impact assessment available to the Attorney General.

  (2) The Attorney General may evaluate the data protection or impact assessment for compliance with the responsibilities set forth in this subchapter.

  (3) Data protection and impact assessments shall be confidential and shall be exempt from disclosure and copying under the Public Records Act.

  (4) To the extent any information contained in a data protection or impact assessment disclosed to the Attorney General includes information subject to attorney-client privilege or work product protection, the disclosure shall not constitute a waiver of the privilege or protection.

  (e) Assessment efficiency and applicability.

  (1) A single data protection or impact assessment may address a comparable set of processing operations that include similar activities.

  (2) If a controller conducts a data protection or impact assessment for the purpose of complying with another applicable law or regulation, the data protection or impact assessment shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements established in this section if the data protection or impact assessment is reasonably similar in scope and effect to the data or impact protection assessment that would otherwise be conducted pursuant to this section.

  (3) Data protection and impact assessment requirements shall apply to processing activities created or generated after January 1, 2028, and are not retroactive. (Added 2025, No. 145 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. January 1, 2028.)