Free state AI and privacy law trackers compared: IAPP, NCSL, Troutman, Orrick, Husch Blackwell

Short answer: for what has passed, the free trackers are good and you should use them. The IAPP privacy tracker is the reference for comprehensive privacy statutes, and the IAPP, NCSL, Troutman Pepper Locke and Orrick all publish state AI trackers. For what is moving now, in bills that sit outside each tracker’s chosen scope, or when you owe a client a written update every month, they stop short. That gap is what LawSignals is for.

Scopes below are taken from each tracker’s own description, read on 12 October 2026. We do not quote their bill counts: they change weekly, and the sources disagree with each other. Check each page for its current numbers and its last-updated date.

The free trackers at a glance

Why the exclusions matter more than the coverage

Every tracker on this list chose a scope, and every one states it. That is good practice, and it is also the whole issue. A tracker built for cross-sectoral AI governance will correctly leave out an insurance bill that restricts algorithmic underwriting. A privacy tracker built for comprehensive statutes will correctly leave out a breach notification amendment. Neither is an error.

Your client does not care which category a bill was filed under. An insurer asks about the underwriting bill. A retailer asks about the breach deadline. The question a lawyer gets is “does anything affect us”, and a scope chosen for a research audience answers a narrower one.

The second gap is timing. These trackers are strongest on enacted law. A bill that cleared committee this week in four states, filed under four different titles, is the thing a client wants to hear about before it passes, and it is the thing a statute-by-statute chart is not built to show.

1. IAPP: the reference for comprehensive privacy statutes

The IAPP Westin Research Center’s privacy tracker follows proposed and enacted comprehensive state privacy bills and compares the enacted laws provision by provision, grouped into consumer rights and business obligations. If the question is “which states have a comprehensive privacy law, and does it have a private right of action”, start here.

Its AI governance tracker applies the same discipline to AI: cross-sectoral bills that apply to private companies, with government-only bills, task forces and sector-specific laws such as employment or health care left out. That exclusion is the one to watch. Automated employment decision tools and AI in health care are where a great deal of state AI legislation actually lands.

2. NCSL: the legislators’ own database

NCSL, the National Conference of State Legislatures, keeps a searchable database of artificial intelligence legislation introduced and enacted across the states. It is broad and it is organised by session, which makes it good for “how much AI legislation did states introduce last year” and weaker for “what moved this week”. Check which session years it currently includes before you treat it as complete for the current one.

3. Troutman Pepper Locke: a weekly read on private-sector AI bills

Troutman’s State Artificial Intelligence Law Tracker covers AI legislation and regulation across all 50 states, and its weekly “Proposed State AI Law Update” is one of the most useful free reads on pending AI bills. Its stated scope is bills that could affect private-sector AI developers and deployers, and it says what it leaves out: government use, insurance, education, legal settings, name, image and likeness, deepfakes, CSAM and election bills.

4. Orrick: a filterable map of enacted AI law

Orrick’s U.S. AI Law Tracker, part of its AI Law Center, lists state AI laws you can filter by state, effective date and subject. By its own account it is updated monthly and shows only states with defined AI laws, so a state with heavy pending activity and nothing enacted will look empty.

5. Husch Blackwell: privacy law, by year

Husch Blackwell publishes a state privacy law tracker as a yearly edition, with an interactive map, and a running series of “Proposed State Privacy Law Update” alerts. The alerts are a good read on the session in progress. Make sure the tracker page you land on is the current year’s.

Where LawSignals fits

LawSignals is legislative tracking software for lawyers, and it is built for the two gaps above rather than as a replacement for the references:

• Pending bills, ranked by how far they moved. Every bill in every state legislature and Congress, not only enacted law, with the ones that cleared a committee or a chamber at the top.
• Matched on what a bill does. Each practice area has a written description of the duties and mechanisms it covers, and every bill is checked against it, so an AI rule inside an insurance bill still reaches the AI legislation tracker. The same goes for data privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, children’s online safety and cannabis, which the free trackers mostly do not cover at all.
• A report you can send. Once a month, per practice area: what moved, what passed and the federal rules on the same subject, as a web page and a PDF.

The limits, stated plainly. It costs money, from $39 a month billed annually. Its scopes are drafted by a model and checked by measurement against judged bills, not reviewed by an attorney. Federal rulemaking comes from the Federal Register only; state administrative codes are not covered. And for a provision-by-provision comparison of enacted privacy statutes, the IAPP chart is still the better tool.

How to choose

Ask what the question in front of you actually is.

• “Which states have passed X?” Use the free trackers. IAPP for comprehensive privacy and cross-sectoral AI, Orrick or Troutman for enacted AI law, NCSL for volume by session.
• “What is moving that could affect my client?” You need pending bills across every state, matched on substance rather than on a curated list. That is a feed, free or paid.
• “What do I tell the client this month?” You need the feed written up. Either you write it, or a tool does. See client-ready legislative updates for what each option costs.

If your work turns on dates, our live list of new state laws taking effect in 2027 shows every enacted bill in the six practice areas whose effective date we can read, and names the states whose bills do not state one.

The bottom line

The IAPP, NCSL, Troutman, Orrick and Husch Blackwell trackers are good, free and honest about their scope. Use them for what has passed. When a client’s question falls outside their scope, or comes before the bill passes, or needs an answer in writing every month, that is the work they were not built for. Read a recent LawSignals report and judge the difference yourself.