Hawaii Senators Float 2 Privacy Bills Amid Abortion Access Concerns
A Hawaii data privacy bill that state Sen. Chris Lee and five other Democrats (SB-1037) introduced Friday generally follows other comprehensive state bills in the mold of Virginia or Connecticut.
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“Notably, however, the bill would create a narrow California-style right to delete that only applies to personal data provided by an individual, in contrast to most other state privacy laws, where the deletion right extends to information collected about people,” Future of Privacy Forum Senior Director Keir Lamont wrote in email Tuesday. Also, the bill would make Hawaii only the fourth state, after California, Colorado and New Jersey, to have a rulemaking process, he said.
SB-1037 would apply to entities doing business in Hawaii and controlling or processing personal data of at least 100,000 consumers, or of at least 25,000 consumers, while deriving 25% or more of their gross annual revenue from data sales. As is also common among state privacy laws, the Hawaii bill would exempt governments, nonprofits and higher education. It also has exemptions for data covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Gramm-Leach Bliley Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act and other typically exempted federal laws.
The Hawaii attorney general would have exclusive enforcement authority for the proposed law, which would provide no private right of action.
Also, Lee and seven other Democratic state senators introduced a bill aimed at keeping reproductive health data private (SB-1163). It would specifically prohibit sale of geolocation information, internet browser information and audio collected by a device’s microphone without consent.
SB-1163 says: “The legislature finds that the unregulated and unfettered sale of mobile device users' geolocation information, particularly data pertaining to sensitive locations like reproductive health clinics, poses significant implications with respect to the civil rights and liberties of residents and visitors to the State.” Such sales “may infringe upon citizens' right to an accessible, safe abortion by allowing purchasers to surveil mobile device users' activities in relation to reproductive health clinics.”
Another Hawaii bill under consideration this year proposes a constitutional data property right (see 2501140071).