Bill > SB2897

This bill amends the Personal Information Protection Act to prohibit data collectors, which are entities that handle personal information, from owning, maintaining, licensing, storing, or disclosing records containing "immigration or citizenship status information" about Illinois residents. This new category of protected information is defined to include details about an individual's U.S. citizenship or the citizenship of any other country, as well as their legal right to reside in or be present in the United States, and also encompasses their nationality and country of origin. Importantly, this prohibition does not apply to government agencies, public and private universities, or financial institutions, which are common collectors of such sensitive data. The bill also clarifies that "personal information" now explicitly includes this immigration or citizenship status information, strengthening its protection under the Act.