As the trend continues, Texas has joined other states in the data privacy ring by introducing two privacy and data protection bills. Both bills are aimed at protecting personal information and holding companies accountable for data security.

While California was the first to enact a state privacy law, Washington State is on their heels to pass their own legislation this month. As we see more of these bills pop up in other jurisdictions, it is clear data privacy is on the radar for everyone, including jurisdictions that are business friendly.

We expect to see more of these bills appear as the months go on.

HB-04518 – Texas Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA)
The TCPA is very similar to California’s CCPA and would go into effect in September 1, 2020. It introduces some new definitions (like personal information and business) and the definition of consumer is limited to residents of Texas. It imposes civil penalties in the amount of $2500 for each violation and $7500 for each intentional violation. Read the bill »

HB – 04390 – Texas Privacy Protection Act (TPPA)
This bill goes much broader and does not provide as much detail as TCPA. The TPPA regulates personal identifying information while providing examples and exclusions to support its definition. It does not limit to consumer and would apply to any business doing business in Texas, has more than 50 employees and collects PII of more than 5,000 individuals, household or devices. Threshold is an annual gross revenue that exceeds $25 million and derives 50 percent or more of the business’s annual revenue by processing PII. It would go into effect in September 2019. Read the bill »

-Deana