AUGUSTA — Thanks to a new amendment, political groups that work to elect Maine candidates could be exempt from a strict and long-debated data privacy measure that lawmakers voted to advance Thursday.

The new carveout came Thursday morning from Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, further tweaking the proposal to limit the amount of data that businesses and other groups can collect and use in Maine to target consumers with advertisements. After members took a break Thursday afternoon to discuss the amendment within their caucuses, the Senate voted 18-16 to approve the measure following a lengthy debate.

Carney is one of the cosponsors of the bill from Rep. Amy Kuhn, D-Falmouth, that would require companies to only collect and store the data necessary to provide a good or service. It would prohibit companies from collecting an individual’s biometric information, such as fingerprints, unless necessary, and would ban targeted advertising to minors and the sale of their information.

The new amendment added a “political organization” to the list of exempted groups. It defined the term as a party, committee, association, fund or other group that operates primarily to influence or attempt to influence the election of a candidate to local, state or federal offices.

Carney largely framed the amendment Thursday as an attempt to honor free speech protections under the First Amendment. But a few senators from both parties criticized the move as shielding lawmakers and their campaigns from the rules they are creating.

“If we’re going to pass a law, we need to live by it, and that goes for my own political party,” said Sen. Joe Baldacci, a Bangor Democrat who is also running this year for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District seat. Baldacci and Sen. Craig Hickman of Winthrop were the lone Democratic senators to join Republicans in opposing the amended proposal Thursday.

Supporters of the data privacy changes, including the ACLU of Maine, have pointed to the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence and increased government surveillance, including the use of location data to identify protesters, as reasons to have Maine join 19 other states with data privacy laws.

Business interests had previously argued the data privacy rules are too harsh and would hamper small businesses hoping to compete with larger corporations.

Lauren Wayne, president of Portland’s State Theatre, said in a statement it is “a little hard to understand” how lawmakers felt the need to add the political group exemption. Other exemptions already in an earlier version of the bill covered groups such as universities, tax-exempt organizations and health care facilities.

Carney noted the new rules would still allow the use of “broader” geolocation data, such as ZIP codes, that could let tourists see ads about Maine while they are visiting the state. The original bill also does not apply to businesses handling data for fewer than 35,000 consumers, unless they get more than 20% of their gross revenue from selling personal data.

“We don’t know where AI is going,” Kuhn said last month while speaking in support of her proposal. “Even the people who are developing it don’t know where it is going, but we do know that our data is the fuel. The single most important thing we can do to protect Mainers in this AI-enabled world is to pass strong data privacy protections.”

Maine lawmakers have considered competing data privacy measures for years in the absence of comprehensive federal legislation. In 2024, the Senate defeated a similar data privacy effort led by former Rep. Maggie O’Neil, D-Saco.

Last month, the House voted 71-68 to pass Kuhn’s proposal before the latest amendment arrived. A number of representatives missed last month’s vote, and the amended version with the political group exemption would need the House’s approval again before both chambers could give it final approval and send it to Gov. Janet Mills.

The Democratic governor’s office did not weigh in on this year’s bill, but Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office had testified in favor of a past version.

The latest amendment also included other technical changes, such as delaying the date the stricter privacy rules would take effect from Sept. 1, 2026, to Sept. 1, 2027. The fiscal note attached to the amended proposal said it would cost around $440,000 to hire staff in the attorney general’s office to help enforce the new rules.