Key point: Last week, Illinois enacted its frontier AI model law, the Massachusetts legislature started conference committee negotiations on the proposed consumer data privacy law, and pressure mounted on New Jersey’s recently enacted data broker law.

This is the 26th update on the status of proposed state privacy and AI legislation in 2026.

What’s New

With the California legislature in summer recess and many other legislatures closed for the year, last week was a quieter week for developments – though still not without a few notable ones.

In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker signed the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act (SB 315) into law last week, making Illinois the third state — following California and New York — to enact a frontier AI model law.

In Massachusetts, conference committee negotiations started on the state’s consumer data privacy bill, S 2619. The six-member conference committee will try to negotiate differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, including whether to include a private right of action against large data holders.

In New Jersey, the story was about the fallout from the quick enactment of the state’s new data broker law (A 5328). Two important developments unfolded Friday afternoon. First, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs – the entity that will enforce the law and create the registry – issued an alert clarifying that data brokers and data collectors will not need to register or pay any registration fee until 2027. This was presumably intended to clarify the law’s effective date language. The Division also said it will issue additional guidance in the coming months on the law’s prohibition on selling sensitive personal data.

Shortly thereafter, the New Jersey Globe published a story, stating: “A senior [Governor Mikie] Sherrill administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly, confirmed that the state would not enforce the law until the legislature fixes certain defects that have come to light over the last few days.”

Those developments come after pressure mounted against the new law once everyone returned from the July 4 holiday. One of the immediate issues was the impact on the upcoming November elections. As the Globe’s article highlighted, political organizations from both parties feared the law would force them to immediately shut down the flow of data in New Jersey or risk fines in the billions of dollars. Adam Bender reported for Privacy Daily that at least one other non-political trade association has taken issue with the law’s impact on its members. This is likely just the start, as other trade associations and companies scrutinize the law.

The issue now is that the New Jersey legislature is in recess. The legislature passed the state budget on June 30 – this new law was associated with the budget because of the significant expected revenue from fees and fines – and will not return until the fall.