A new study by Comparitech finds New Jersey ranks 20th in the nation when it comes to protecting personal privacy.

Comparitech Editor Paul Bischof says we score well on data disposal laws that require companies and government to dump your personal data after the purpose it was collected for.

New Jersey also protects social media rights: "Your boss can't force you to friend you on Facebook so he can keep an eye on you," he said.

New Jersey also has a good shield law that protects journalists and bloggers from revealing their sources.

He says New Jersey needs more protection whenever large companies collect your data and things like e-mail.

"The other big area is protecting specific types of data that may not be considered as personal data. Data like e-mail addresses. But there's also things like biometric data, fingerprints — data that gets sent from your smart refrigerator or your car or the specific types of data like that aren't covered and other laws are still at risk," he said.

The study showed California, Delaware and Utah were the leaders in protecting privacy.

The full study can be found at Comparitech's website.

Joe Cutter is the senior news anchor on New Jersey 101.5

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