A Washington state House chair strongly supported letting individuals sue companies in comprehensive privacy legislation despite concerns that state and national industry groups raised about possibly making Washington the only state with that type of enforcement mechanism. At a livestreamed hearing Tuesday, the House Technology Committee heard support from consumer advocates and opposition from industry about HB-1671, a measure Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) introduced. Kloba hopes the bill can be scheduled for a committee vote next week, her office said after the hearing.
AI legislation drawing opposition because of its private right of action and potential conflicts with federal privacy law passed a New Mexico House committee Thursday.
The Virginia Senate passed a reproductive health data privacy bill on Friday. Then on Monday, the Virginia House Communications Committee advanced multiple AI and privacy bills. However, legislation that would add a private right of action and make other changes in Virginia’s comprehensive privacy law appeared to stall in a subcommittee.
Legislators in states like Texas, Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts can set the tone for privacy-related AI laws in 2025, stakeholders told the Multistate AI Policymaker Working Group during a public feedback session Monday.
Almost all comprehensive state privacy laws include enforcement language against AI-related discrimination, so additional efforts to regulate automated decisions could be redundant, Minnesota Rep. Steve Elkins (D) told Privacy Daily in a recent interview.
"With the passage of time and the exponential growth of generative AI,” it’s time to update Virginia’s 2021 privacy law “to keep pace with current technological advances,” Del. Michelle Maldonado (D) said in an emailed statement Friday.
Signaling a possible trend, an increasing number of state legislators are filing AI discrimination bills. Similar to Colorado's nation-first AI law, the bills focus on preventing businesses from discriminating by using AI algorithms.
Virginia would establish a Division of Emerging Technologies, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy within the state’s Department of Law, under a bill that Del. Bonita Anthony (D) proposed this week.
The second U.S. state privacy law could be updated this year. Virginia’s legislative session opened Wednesday with a bill by Del. Michelle Maldonado (D) that would add protections for teens, include support for universal opt-out mechanisms and revise other parts of the 2021 Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. Maldonado's measure would also add an AI section called the "Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act,” which includes a private right of action.
Legislation that would establish state-enforced civil penalties for AI-related violations was prefiled in Washington and Virginia this week.