NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023

More than three-fourths of Washington voters support the proposed My Health, My Data Act

Leg­is­la­tion pend­ing in Wash­ing­ton’s state­house that would great­ly strength­en data pri­va­cy pro­tec­tions for the peo­ple of the Ever­green State is incred­i­bly pop­u­lar, with more than three-fourths of respon­dents sup­port­ive over­all and sev­en in ten vot­ers strong­ly sup­port­ive, NPI’s lat­est statewide poll has found.

76% of 874 vot­ers inter­viewed from March 7th-8th, 2023 by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling  for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute said they were sup­port­ive of block­ing health track­ing apps and adver­tis­ers from col­lect­ing and sell­ing Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ health data with­out their con­sent, bar­ring loca­tion-spe­cif­ic tar­get­ing of peo­ple who vis­it repro­duc­tive and gen­der affirm­ing health­care facil­i­ties, and requir­ing com­pa­nies to main­tain and pub­lish a pri­va­cy pol­i­cy for people’s health data.

Only 17% were opposed.

7% said they were not sure.

Visualization of NPI's My Health, My Data poll finding

Visu­al­iza­tion of NPI’s My Health, My Data poll find­ing (NPI graphic)

The pro­posed My Health, My Data Act, which is cur­rent­ly await­ing a vote in the Sen­ate, would do the fol­low­ing, as sum­ma­rized by non­par­ti­san staff:

  • Estab­lish­es con­sumer rights of access, with­draw con­sent, and dele­tion regard­ing con­sumer health data.
  • Requires reg­u­lat­ed enti­ties to obtain con­sent in order to col­lect, share, or sell con­sumer health data.
  • Spec­i­fies reg­u­lat­ed enti­ty oblig­a­tions regard­ing con­sumer health data pri­va­cy notice, access, and secu­ri­ty requirements.
  • Pro­hibits imple­ment­ing a geofence around an enti­ty that pro­vides in-per­son health care ser­vices to col­lect or track data from con­sumers or to send adver­tise­ments relat­ed to con­sumer health data.
  • Exempts gov­ern­ment agen­cies, trib­al nations, and per­son­al infor­ma­tion gov­erned by cer­tain fed­er­al or state laws.
  • Makes vio­la­tions enforce­able under the Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Act.
  • Pro­vides an effec­tive date of March 31, 2024, for sec­tions of the bill relat­ed to con­sumer health data rights, reg­u­lat­ed enti­ty and proces­sor oblig­a­tions, and valid authorization.

The My Health, My Data Act was intro­duced in the House as HB 1155 and in the Sen­ate as SB 5351. Its prime spon­sors are Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Van­dana Slat­ter (D‑48th Dis­trict) and Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra (D‑45th Dis­trict), a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber. The bill was request­ed by Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son and is one of Fer­gu­son’s 2023 leg­isla­tive priorities.

One month ago, on March 4th, the House approved its ver­sion of the leg­is­la­tion, keep­ing it mov­ing through the leg­isla­tive process. The Sen­ate’s Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee strength­ened it with good amend­ments, gave it a “do pass” rec­om­men­da­tion and it was pulled from Rules on March 24th.

The bill must receive a floor vote in the Sen­ate by April 12th, the next cut-off. If that hap­pens, it would then return to the House to receive fur­ther consideration.

In the his­to­ry of our research polling, there have been only a few bills we’ve mea­sured pub­lic sup­port for that have been more pop­u­lar than this. It is rare for us to find more than three-fourths of like­ly vot­ers in agree­ment on any­thing.

My Health, My Data is an excep­tion­al bill. It’s a pol­i­cy that just makes sense to Wash­ing­to­ni­ans… so much sense that sev­en out of ten respon­dents jumped at the oppor­tu­ni­ty to say that they strong­ly sup­port­ed the bill. Take a look:

QUESTION: Do you strong­ly sup­port, some­what sup­port, some­what oppose, or strong­ly oppose block­ing health track­ing apps and adver­tis­ers from col­lect­ing and sell­ing Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ health data with­out their con­sent, bar­ring loca­tion-spe­cif­ic tar­get­ing of peo­ple who vis­it repro­duc­tive and gen­der affirm­ing health­care facil­i­ties, and requir­ing com­pa­nies to main­tain and pub­lish a pri­va­cy pol­i­cy for people’s health data?

ANSWERS:

  • Sup­port: 76% 
    • Strong­ly sup­port: 70%
    • Some­what sup­port: 6%
  • Oppose: 17%
    • Some­what oppose: 6%
    • Strong­ly oppose: 11%
  • Not sure: 7%

Our sur­vey of 874 like­ly 2024 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers was in the field from Tues­day, March 7th through Wednes­day, March 8th, 2023.

The poll uti­lizes a blend­ed method­ol­o­gy, with auto­mat­ed phone calls to land­lines (50%) and online answers from cell phone only respon­dents (50%).

It was con­duct­ed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, and has a mar­gin of error of +/- 3.3% at the 95% con­fi­dence interval.

My Health, My Data is so pop­u­lar that even most Don­ald Trump vot­ers sup­port it. Yes, you read that right: a major­i­ty of self-iden­ti­fied 2020 Trump vot­ers like this bill. 51% of Trump vot­ers are strong­ly sup­port­ive, while anoth­er 6% are some­what sup­port­ive. (89% of Joe Biden vot­ers are sup­port­ive — 84% strongly.)

60% of Repub­li­can vot­ers sup­port the bill, along with 70% of inde­pen­dent vot­ers and 89% of Demo­c­ra­t­ic vot­ers. 25% of Repub­li­can vot­ers are opposed, along with 24% of inde­pen­dent vot­ers and 7% of Demo­c­ra­t­ic voters.

All age groups, income brack­ets, and regions are sup­port­ive. In fact, we could­n’t find a sin­gle group in our crosstabs who were opposed to the bill.

That speaks to how incred­i­bly, over­whelm­ing­ly pop­u­lar it is.

Aside from ban­ning for­eign cam­paign dona­tions and requir­ing fis­cal impact dis­clo­sures in ini­tia­tive bal­lot titles, our team has­n’t seen this lev­el of sup­port for any oth­er pro­posed leg­is­la­tion we’ve asked Wash­ing­ton vot­ers to weigh in on recent­ly. My Health, My Data is a gem with mas­sive pub­lic enthusiasm.

Get­ting this leg­is­la­tion to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s desk must be a pri­or­i­ty in the final three weeks of this 2023 leg­isla­tive session. 

The Sen­ate ought to pass the ver­sion of the bill pro­posed by the Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee and the House should accept the amend­ments so that we can get a strong new health data pri­va­cy law on our books as soon as possible.

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2 Pings

  1. […] New research released yes­ter­day by the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute at an event with … shows that HB 1155 is mas­sive­ly pop­u­lar. 76% sup­port the leg­is­la­tion’s pro­vi­sions, with sev­en out of ten vot­ers strong­ly sup­port­ive overall. […]

  2. […] New research released on April 4th by the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute at an event with R… shows that HB 1155 is mas­sive­ly pop­u­lar. 76% sup­port the legislation’s pro­vi­sions, with sev­en out of ten vot­ers strong­ly sup­port­ive overall. […]

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