Indivisibles’ mail to House: Position on SB 5062 and amendments

Mail we sent to the Washington state House of Representatives on Sunday April 11. If you agree, here’s a page that makes it easy to contact your legislators!

Dear Members of the Washington State House of Representatives,

Thank you for your continued hard work on the challenging issue of data privacy. The large number of amendments to SB 5062 highlights the complexity of the issue. We thank every legislator who offered an amendment, or helped to develop one. Even if we oppose the specifics of your amendment(s), we appreciate the attempt to fix the problems of the current bill.

Our position on the final SB 5062 bill depends what happens with the amendments,

• SUPPORT only if Rep. Kloba’s striker (5062-S2 AMH KLOB H1465.2) or floor amendment (5062-S2 AMH KLOB H1529.1) is adopted. Either of these two amendments would provide meaningful protection for Washingtonians.
• Otherwise, OPPOSE. Anything short of these does not offer meaningful protection. A bad bill is worse than no bill.

On the amendments, we ask you to SUPPORT all five amendments from Rep. Kloba:

1. 5062-S2 AMH KLOB H1465.2, the striking amendment that leaders of Indivisible groups previously wrote to you supporting. Brandy Donaghy’s Real Electronic Data Privacy is Opt-In discusses the importance of opt-in and the limitations of the current bill’s “opt in for sensitive data” approach
2. 5062-S2 AMH KLOB H1529.1, which also makes multiple improvements to the bill, including making it fully opt-in, a strengthened private right of action, and removing the pre-emption clause.
3. 5062-S2 AMH KLOB BAKY 195, strengthening the private right of action
4. 5062-S2 AMH KLOB BAKY 196, establishing right to not be subject to surreptitious surveillance,
5. 5062-S2 AMH KLOB BAKY 197, removing the pre-emption clause and allowing cities and counties to make stronger local legislation. Derek Lum’s The Washington Privacy Act: Insufficient for the immigrant, refugee communities we serve makes a strong case for why this is so important.

And we respectfully ask you to OPPOSE

• 5062-S2 AMH ABBA BAKY 186, awarding attorney’s fees and costs to defendants. This opens up somebody who sues Facebook or Google to huge financial risk.
• 5062-S2 AMH CORR BAKY 184, making the right to cure permanent. Indivisible Eastside’s mail urging you to oppose the very-similar Walen amendment applies to this amendment as well.
• 5062-S2 AMH DUFA BAKY 182, prohibiting class action suits. The threat of class action suits is one of the few deterrents to large tech companies.
• 5062-S2 AMH HOFF BAKY 185, limiting attorney fees in class actions.
• 5062-S2 AMH STOK BAKY 183, removing the per se clause. The Attorney General has said this would make the bill unenforceable
• 5062-S2 AMH STOK H1521.1, restoring the Senate version of the bill. The CRJ striker made several useful improvements, so this takes the bill in the wrong direction
• 5062-S2 AMH WALE BAKY 175, making the right to cure permanent.
• 5062-S2 AMH WALE BAKY 176, making the right to cure permanent (as an amendment to Rep. Kloba’s striker)

Thank you once again for all your work on this issue over the years. The outcome this year would have been much better if the Senate had started with the bill the House passed last year instead of throwing away the hard-fought progress you made.

We hope that you are still able to pass a bill this session that offers meaningful protections for Washingtonians. In any case, we look forward to continuing to work with you between sessions and next year.

Indivisible Whidbey

Indivisible Skagit

Indivisible Tacoma

Indivisible Washington’s 8th District

Indivisible Ocean Shores

Olympia Indivisible

Indivisible Eastside

Indivisible South Puget Sound

North Kitsap Indivisible

Indivisible Valley (1st CD)

Indivisible Bainbridge Island

Snohomish County Indivisible

Indivisible Plus Washington