Generally revise privacy laws related to biometric, genetic, and neural data
SB 163 revises Montana's Genetic Information Privacy Act by expanding its scope to include neurotechnology data. The bill extends privacy protections to information concerning an individual's central or peripheral nervous system activity, such as brain data, collected by various devices. It adds new definitions for neurotechnology and neurotechnology data, and revises provisions related to privacy notices and exceptions. The intent is to safeguard consumers' sensitive neurotechnology data, particularly when collected by non-invasive devices outside of medical settings. This aims to provide similar privacy protections for neurotechnology data as currently exist for genetic data.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Apr 2025
House Passage
Apr 2025
Signed into Law
May 2025
Introduced Jan 15, 2025
Signed May 5, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons
What changed between versions
SB0163_2(9).pdf
→
SB0163_X.pdf
·
4 edits
MODERATE
This bill expands Montana's Genetic Information Privacy Act to explicitly include neurotechnology data, such as brain activity and neural signals, under its protections. It updates the legislative findings to address the unique privacy risks of devices that can monitor or decode brain activity and adds new definitions to clarify what constitutes neurotechnology. The changes aim to ensure that sensitive neural data receives the same privacy safeguards as genetic data.
Scope change
The bill's scope is expanded to cover neurotechnology data in addition to existing genetic data, and the definition of 'neurotechnology' is added to the statute.
SCOPE
The bill's title and summary now explicitly include neurotechnology data within the Genetic Information Privacy Act.
Legislative findings were updated to explain why neural data is sensitive and why current regulations may not fully protect non-medical neurotechnology use.
DEFINITION
The definition of 'neurotechnology' was added to the definitions section to define devices that record, interpret, or alter nervous system responses.
A new definition for 'mental augmentation' was added to clarify that neurotechnology includes tools that improve cognition or behavior.
Floor votes · Senate Apr 3, 2025 · House Mar 26, 2025
How they voted
49–1
Passed
Total votes 50
Apr 3, 2025
D
Democratic18
94% Yea
R
Republican32
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
47
Key actions
9
Committee
6
Amendments
1
May 1, 2025
Signed into law
(S) Signed by Governor
upper
Apr 18, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Signed by Speaker
lower
Apr 14, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Signed by President
upper
Apr 3, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (49-1)
senate
Mar 26, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (99-0-1)
house
Mar 26, 2025
Introduced
(H) Returned to Senate with Amendments
lower
Feb 22, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Energy, Technology and Federal Relations
lower
Feb 21, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Energy, Technology and Federal Relations
lower
Jan 29, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Energy, Technology and Federal Relations
lower
Jan 24, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Energy, Technology & Federal Relations
upper
Jan 23, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Energy, Technology & Federal Relations
upper
Jan 17, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Energy, Technology & Federal Relations
upper
Jan 15, 2025
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Daniel Zolnikov
RRepublican
Ask Maddy
·
AI policy assistant
Ask Maddy about SB 163
Scope: MT
Hi! I can help you understand SB 163. What would you like to know?
Try one of these
i
Maddy answers using official bill text and legislative records. Always verify before sharing.
Sources cited inline