Support the Kloba striking amendment to fix the Bad Washington Privacy Act (SB 5062)!

The Washington state legislative season is heading to a close, and the fierce battle over privacy legislation is heating up! If you’ve been following it and just want to know how you can help, skip down to the Take Action section. Otherwise, read on for the details!

The House has to pass SB 5062 by this Sunday (April 11), or wait until next year. The current version of SB 5062 is the Bad Washington Privacy Act. Our last post discussed some of the many reasons it’s bad.

But early this week, Rep. Shelley Kloba has introduced a “striking amendment”, completely replacing the current text of the bill!

The Kloba striker amendment addresses the four key areas consumer, civil rights, immigrant rights, and civil liberties groups have criticized in the current version of the bill.

• It’s fully opt-in: companies have to get your permission before collecting, sharing, or selling your data. The current bill is mostly opt-out — they can use your data without your consent.
• It has a strong private right of action: you can sue companies who break the law and abuse your data — and if you win, they have to pay damages for the harm they’ve caused and penalties for breaking the law
• It allows cities and counties to pass stronger laws if they want
• It removes loopholes

If the Kloba striker passes, it will provide meaningful privacy protection for Washingtonians. Of course there’s still room for improvement. But it’s good enough that the civil rights and community groups in the Tech Equity Coalition support it. So does the ACLU of Washington.

And so do over 20 Indivisible groups (including Indivisible Plus Washington), who sent a letter to the entire Washington House urging them to pass the Kloba striker.

We’ve been asking our lawmakers about the Bad Washington Privacy Act’s problems for the last three years, and this year we’ve challenged them to fix it or nix it. The Kloba stiker fixes it. But if the amendment doesn’t pass, then we asked the House to vote NO on the Bad Washington Privacy Act.

You can see our full letter here. If you agree that it’s time to fix it or nix it, let your state representatives know!

Take action!

One easy way tell your reps to fix it or nix it is to call the legislative hotline at 1–800–562–6000 (TTY 800.833.6388). Tell them the bill number (SB 5062), and that your position is OTHER because you want to leave a comment on an amendment. They’ll ask for your name, address, and then your comment.

Your comment doesn’t have to be fancy! It can be as short as

“Please support Rep. Kloba’s amendment, which addresses many of the current bill’s problems. And if it doesn’t pass, please vote no on the bill.”

Or you can go into more detail. For example:

“Please support Rep. Kloba’s amendment. I don’t want my data being used without my consent, and Rep. Kloba’s amendment is fully opt-in. The current bill is mostly opt-out, so companies can use my data without asking. Opt-out also puts immigrant communities and survivors of harassment, stalking, and domestic violence at risk. So if Rep. Kloba’s amendment doesn’t pass, please vote no on the bill.”

If you don’t like calling your legislators …

ACLU of Washington has a form that also makes it very easy to contact your legislators.

You can also email your state legislators. https://bit.ly/5062EmailReps, on the Take Action Network, lets you generate a draft email that you can customize.

Or, craft your own email from scratch! Make sure that your subject has “Support the Kloba amendment to SB 5062” in it. The contents can be short and sweet if you want.

Please support Rep. Kloba’s amendment. The current version of SB 5062 doesn’t protect me or my family.

Or you can go into more detail. Make sure to sign it with your name and city, so they’ll know you’re a constituent.

The legislature’s site has lawmakers’ email addresses, and a District Finder if you’re not sure what district you’re in.

Indivisibles say: support the Kloba amendment!

Here’s the letter Indivisible groups sent to the House.

Subject: Indivisibles ask you to support Rep. Kloba’s striking amendment on SB 5062

Dear Members of the Washington State House of Representatives,

We are writing to you as leaders of 22 Indivisible groups with a combined membership of over 40,000 activists. Indivisibles all over the state care passionately about data privacy. It’s an issue that affects all of us in our daily lives; and it’s an important civil rights issue. The current version of SB 5062 leaves us all at risk.

Rep. Kloba’s amendment (2SSB 5062 — H AMD 539) is a huge improvement. It addresses the four key changes immigrant rights, civil rights, civil liberties organizations have requested in the bill. It is fully opt-in. It has a strong private right of action including a right to recover damages. Cities and counties are allowed to pass stronger laws. It removes some of the biggest loopholes.

While it is not perfect, Rep. Kloba’s amendment will provide Washingtonians with meaningful privacy protections. We urge you to support it, while continuing to look for ways to improve it further.

By contrast, the current version SB 5062 will not protect us. A bad bill is worse than no bill — you’d be asking constituents to trust your assurances that their data is protected when in reality it would still be ripe for abuse by predatory corporations and governmental agencies like ICE. And once a bad bill is passed, it’s much harder to change.

So unless SB 5062 is amended to address those four key areas — by passing Rep. Kloba’s amendment or some other equally-strong amendments — we respectfully ask you to vote “no”.

Please fix it or nix it.

Indivisible Whidbey
Indivisible Skagit
Snohomish County Indivisible
Indivisible Washington’s 8th District
Wallingford Indivisible
Olympia Indivisible
Indivisible Eastside
Seattle Indivisible
Indivisible Tacoma
North Kitsap Indivisible
Indivisible Ocean Shores
Indivisible Bainbridge Island
Resist 45 Bremerton
Washington State Indivisible Podcast
Indivisible South Puget Sound
Tula’s Indivisible Critical Response Team
Indivisible Sequim
Indivisible Valley (1st CD)
Indivisible Kirkland
Huddle Lopez Island
Lower Columbia Indivisible
Indivisible Plus Washington