Blue Shield Act Adds GPS, Biometrics, and Workplace Addresses to Protected Privacy Data

The new Blue Shield Privacy Act of 2025 is making a crucial update to what the federal government considers “restricted personal information.” Essentially, it’s modernizing the list of data points that get the highest level of privacy protection, recognizing that what we share online and in the real world has changed a lot since the last update. This section of the Act, specifically amending Section 119(b) of title 18 of the U.S. Code, scraps an old, specific reference and replaces it with a lineup of sensitive information that reflects the modern digital age.

Your Data, Now Under the Blue Shield

For anyone who uses a smartphone, drives a car, or clocks in at a physical location, this change is significant. The bill explicitly adds several categories of data to the protected list, meaning they must be handled with the same care as your Social Security number or financial records. These new additions include your license plate number, your biometric information (think fingerprints or facial scans used to unlock your phone or access your office), and perhaps most importantly, your Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates—the real-time location data your apps collect.

Where You Work and Learn Is Now Private

Beyond digital data, the bill also extends protection to specific physical addresses that aren't your home. It adds workplace address and school address to the list of restricted personal information. If you’re a teacher, a construction worker, or a coder, the address of where you spend your day is now federally protected from casual disclosure. This is a big win for personal security, especially for people whose professions might make them targets, or simply for those who want their work life and personal life kept separate.

The Real-World Impact: Tracking and Targeting

What does this mean for everyday life? Imagine you use a navigation app or a fitness tracker; that real-time GPS data is gold for advertisers and data brokers. Under this Act, that sensitive location information is now explicitly restricted, making it much harder—and riskier, legally speaking—for companies to track your movements without high-level safeguards. For businesses that rely on collecting and selling this type of data, the compliance costs and legal risks just went up significantly, forcing them to treat your information with the respect it deserves. This Act essentially puts a high fence around the most sensitive pieces of your identity, ensuring that as technology advances, your right to privacy doesn't fall behind.