Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued letters notifying over one hundred companies of their apparent failure to register as data brokers with the Texas Secretary of State as required by Texas’s newly enacted Data Broker Law. 

Chapter 509 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code orders data brokers—companies that buy, sell, trade, and process individuals’ personal data—to publicly register with the Texas Secretary of State by March 1, 2024, and imposes penalties on data brokers that fail to do so. Texas law also requires data brokers to implement and maintain safeguards to adequately protect Texans’ data. 

“Data brokers collect and store sensitive personal data, such as financial, healthcare, and geolocation information,” said Attorney General Paxton. “My office takes Texans’ privacy seriously. We are taking action to ensure that companies comply with our new data broker law, as well as other Texas consumer protection and privacy laws.”

This latest action follows Attorney General Paxton’s establishment of a specialized team dedicated to aggressively enforcing the full slate of Texas privacy laws. The team is housed within the Consumer Protection Division of the OAG and will ensure companies respect Texans’ privacy rights and safeguard their personal data.