The ACLU cited several examples illustrating the need for such laws. In one instance, a school issued a laptop to a student, then used it to take pictures of him in his bedroom while he was sleeping and partially dressed. In another, a job candidate was forced to hand over his personal social media accounts to his potential employer, a correctional institute.

After I'm dead and gone, what are they going to do with that data?

"A bipartisan consensus on privacy rights is emerging, and now the states are taking collective action where Congress has been largely asleep at the switch," said ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero. "Everyone should be empowered to decide who has access to their personal information." California is notably missing from the list, but it recently passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which the ACLU considers the nation's strongest.

The bills still have to pass through each state's respective legislature, but there's a lot of political goodwill up for grabs. According to the ACLU, recent polls show that 90 percent of Americans want the next US president to pass stronger privacy protection laws. "We're exploding with information and data across our nation," said Michigan state representative Peter Lucido. "Who is the data being shared with? How long is the data being kept? After I'm dead and gone, what are they going to do with that data?"