Legislature crafts internet privacy bills

Washington has joined several other states in proposing internet privacy protection bills after Congress blocked FCC regulations barring internet providers from selling their customers personal data.

Prime sponsor of the Senate’s proposal Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island said his bill is similar to a Minnesota proposal, modifying existing consumer protection law to include internet privacy.

The bill would prohibit internet companies from collecting information from customers without written consent and would prohibit companies from refusing service to customers if they did not consent to data collection.

“We use the internet for everything: banking, medical research, finding out new information about whatever. My little girl uses it to do her homework,” Ranker said. “This is not the sort of information that should be publicly sold for profit to corporations. It’s unacceptable and frankly it’s un-American.”

The prime sponsor of the house version, Rep. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island, said the bill used the FCC regulations that would have gone into effect if Congress and the president had not overturned them.

The bill requires internet companies to obtain affirmative consent to sell data, notify customers of privacy policies and take measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access or distribution. It also requires the attorney general to work with other departments to look into internet consumer protection.

Both bills have broad bipartisan support: the Senate’s bill has 34 co-sponsors, including Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake and the House bill has 73, including Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake and Rep. Cary Condotta, R-Wenatchee.

Warnick said she co-sponsored the bill with her grandchildren and older people in the community in mind, who might be vulnerable to internet crimes or online stalking. She said despite what is playing out in the Republican Party on the national stage, her primary responsibility is to her constituents.

“Sometimes we’ve got to call attention to some of the actions that are done and have some strong conversations about it,” Warnick said. “Because Republicans don’t always agree. I’m not saying I don’t agree with the actions that happened back there (Washington D.C), but I’d like to at least have the conversation on a state level.”

National internet companies, such as Comcast, Verizon and AT & T have issued statements promising to not sell customers’ data.

Governor Jay Inslee said he had met with internet service providers from around the state to gather more information but can’t pledge his support to either bill yet. He said he still needed to evaluate whether Congress would pass a nationwide privacy protection package; otherwise the state would need to step in with their own solution.

“One way or another, in a reasonable period of time, the state of Washington needs these privacy protections,” Inslee said. “We cannot allow the privacy of Washington citizens to be violated with their personal information sold, against their objections.”

With the regular session ending April 23, the legislature has three weeks to bring at least one of these bills through the process. Hansen said the bills are just two different strategies to solve the same underlying issue and he doesn’t see negotiations over the text of the bills as a huge source of conflict.

“I don’t think it’ll be all that difficult because we all have the same goal,” Hansen said. “Maybe their language is better, maybe our language is better. This is not an issue where there are broad philosophical disagreements about what you want to accomplish.”

HB 2200 has been scheduled for a hearing and executive session on April 12 in the House Committee on Technology and Economic Development. SB 5919 has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.