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 (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.