Strictest data privacy bill in the country moving through the Oklahoma legislature
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — State lawmakers are advocating to keep Oklahomans' private information protected.
What many Oklahoma lawmakers are calling the strictest data privacy bill in America is making its way through the House.
In House Bill 2969, a bipartisan legislation, Rep. Collin Walke, (D)-Oklahoma City and Rep. Josh West, (R)-Grove, are taking on companies that profit from selling consumer's data.
"If you have more than $15M in gross annual income, this bill applies to you," Rep. Walke said. "If you sell off information on more than 15,000 consumers, this bill applies to you. If you receive income to the tune of more than 25% from the selling of personal data, this bill applies to you."
The bill would restrict companies from storing data in tactics such as cookies on websites or cross-app tracking.
"Before they can track or collect or sell your data, you have to give explicit permission to say that's okay," Rep. Walke said.
Under the bill, Oklahomans could deny a company from taking their personal information, ask what information is storing and even delete the data on file.
The bill covers all Oklahomans from companies that may not be based in Oklahoma, such as Google, Facebook, or Amazon.
"If they want to collect your data going forward, and you're in Oklahoma, they're going to have to get your permission," Rep. Walke said.
Although this will impact big tech companies, many local businesses won't be affected.
"My question is, do they collect personal data?" Rep. Walke said. "Your restaurants for example, don't collect personal data."
If a business does have to comply, Rep. Walke said there are software providers that could help a local business become compliant with costs around $135.
Currently, there's an almost identical data privacy bill that passed through the House last year and is sitting in the Senate.
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