4 things you can do right now to help pass a good privacy law in Washington!

“This bill leaves immigrants vulnerable to data exploitation”: Ashley Del Villar of La Resistencia on the Bad Washington Privacy Act

Washington’s Fierce Battle Over Online Privacy is heading into the home stretch. The House only has another week to decide what to do with the weak, industry-backed Bad Washington Privacy Act, officially known as SB 5062. They have a few choices:

• Fix it: amend SB 5062 and turn it into the Good Washington Privacy Act
• Nix it: let the bill die in committee or vote “no” on the floor
• Make big tech happy: Pass the Bad Washington Privacy Act anyhow despite their misgivings

Our ask is “fix it or nix it”. The best outcome for Washingtonians is a good bill with real privacy protection for Washingtonians. If that doesn’t happen, then the legislature should give up for this session and try again next year. The worst outcome for us is legislation that gives the illusion of privacy but in reality lets predatory corporations exploit our data without consequences.

But big tech companies see things differently, and they’ve got a lot of money and lobbyists. So now’s the time to tell our legislators what we want them to do.

There’s got more below about how bad the Bad Washington Privacy Act is, and a quick update of where things stand. But if you’ve heard enough already and want to take action, here are four things you can do right now.

• Contact your state reps and tell them “fix it or nix it!”
• Submit official comments on the bill through the legislature’s site
• Send your legislators an op-ed written by a former Republican state legislator and two progressive Indivisible activists. Privacy is an issue that cuts across party lines, and this is good reading for your legislators no matter who they are.
• Get the word out! Share this post, or any of the actions with your friends and family. Share on Facebook, in email, or however you want!

Each of the first three links goes to a page on Take Action Network (TAN) with more details and a sample script you can use if you want. If you provide TAN with your address or legislative it can bring up draft email for you with your legislators’ addresses and names already filled in. Or, you can just cut-and-paste the script and use it without giving TAN any information at all.

How bad is the Bad Washington Privacy Act?

Brianna Auffrey of CAIR WA, Jennifer Lee of ACLU of Washington, independent security expert Cynthia Spiess, and Yasmin Trudeau of the AG’s office testifying about problems with the Bad Washington Privacy Act

Here’s a few of the many things wrong with the Bad Washington Privacy Act:

• It lets predatory corporations use, share, and sell your data without your consent — it’s mostly opt-out, not opt-in.
• If companies violates the law and abuse your data, you can only sue them for “injunctive relief.” But even if you win they don’t have to compensate you for any harm they’ve caused — and they don’t have to pay any penalties. Instead, they just have to stop doing it, and maybe pay your attorney’s fees.
• The AG can also enforce the law … but the bill only lets them hire 3.6 people. That’s only enough for three investigations a year — for the entire state. And how will they be able to take on a company like Facebook, how has150 or more privacy lawyers?
• Student or employee data aren’t covered by the Bad Washington Privacy Act. Airlines and government agencies aren’t covered either. Companies can disclose data to ICE without a warrant. And it’s got tons of other loopholes and exemptions.

It doesn’t have to be that way!

“Opt-out doesn’t protect survivors” — Emilie St. Pierre of Future Ada on the Bad Washington Privacy Act

The House can fix the Bad Washington Privacy Act easily enough if they decide they want to. At the Appropriations Committee hearing last Thursday morning, speakers outlined some straightforward improvements to start making progress. But industry lobbyists whined that the Bad Washington Privacy Act was already too strong. They want to go back to the earlier version of the bill which says that we shouldn’t be able to sue them at all when they break the law. And the bill’s supporters suggested that the current version is a “reasonable compromise” — nobody likes it so it must be good!

So Thursday night, the committee voted 19–14 to advance the bill on a strict party-line vote. Indivisibles had asked the committee to “fix it or nix it.” Republicans listened to us and voted no. The Democrats don’t appear to have listened to us, which is disappointing. But their “yes” vote keeps the bill alive, so there are still chances to fix it. Next, it goes to the Rules committee, and then to a vote on the House floor.

The House could change SB 5062 into the Good Washington Privacy Act by adopting a “striker” amendment. A “striker” completely replaces the existing text of the bill. Sometimes a striker only has fairly minor changes, and most of the text is cut-and-paste from the previous version. But sometimes a striker really is striking!

The House is rumored to be considering a couple of possible strikers:

• Adopting thePeople’s Privacy Act, which Rep. Shelley Kloba introduced earlier this year. The People’s Privacy Act protects people, not corporations. It has bi-partisan sponsorship, and broad support from dozens of civil rights, immigrant rights, civil liberties, and grassroots activism groups — including Indivisible Plus Washington!
• Using the existing bill as a starting point, and incorporating changes suggested by civil rights, privacy, and civil liberties groups to fix the many problems.
• Making some small improvements to the current bill. It would still be bad, but at least legislators could give tech what they want and pretend that they’ve done something.

Or there might not be enough votes for any of these options, in which case they probably won’t even schedule it for a vote on the floor, and the bill will die.

It’s really hard to know what will happen. The Democrats have a majority in the House, so the decision is up to them. But Republicans have a lot of leverage as well. If Democrats pass a bad big-tech-friendly bill without any Republican support, it’ll be a campaign issue when the 2022 elections roll around. But if Republicans and progressive Democrats team up, there’s still a chance to pass a good bill!

Take Action!

One things for sure: the more people legislators hear from, the more likely they are to listen to us instead of lobbyists from big tech and industry associations.

So please please please contact your legislators — and ask your friends and family to as well!

Here’s four easy actions:

• Contact your state reps and tell them “fix it or nix it!”
• Submit official comments on the bill through the legislature’s site
• Send your legislators an op-ed written by a former Republican state legislator and two progressive Indivisible activists. Privacy is an issue that cuts across party lines, and this is good reading for your legislators no matter who they are.
• Get the word out! Share this post, or any of the actions with your friends and family. Share on Facebook, in email, or however you want!

Each of the first three links goes to a page on Take Action Network (TAN) with more details and a sample script you can use if you want. If you provide TAN with your address or legislative it can bring up draft email for you with your legislators’ addresses and names already filled in. Or, you can just cut-and-paste the script and use it without giving TAN any information at all.