Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle (center), watches from the wings of the House floor Thursday at the Capitol in Olympia. Carlyle is the sponsor of Senate Bill 5376. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)

Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle (center), watches from the wings of the House floor Thursday at the Capitol in Olympia. Carlyle is the sponsor of Senate Bill 5376. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)

Seeking compromise on data privacy, Dems found controversy

Microsoft, Amazon and Comcast got invited to to help craft language but consumer groups did not.

OLYMPIA — One of the most intriguing dramas at this point in the legislative session revolves around a bill putting new rules in place regarding data privacy and facial recognition technology.

And the intrigue deepened Wednesday when state Senate Bill 5376 failed to receive a vote in the House by a 5 p.m. deadline for action on non-budget policy bills.

“It’s dead. It’s really tragic after about a year of work on this,” said Sen. Guy Palumbo, D-Maltby, a co-sponsor. “We would have been leaders if we had adopted this. This is a classic case of the perfect being the enemy of the good.”

Maybe it’s not dead dead. Powerful voices in the Legislature and influential forces outside Olympia want it and that can often be enough to keep it alive until lawmakers adjourn.

“We didn’t find agreement. It didn’t come up for a vote. It seems dead,” said Rep. Zack Hudgins, D-Tukwila, who was among many in the House Democratic Caucus unimpressed by what the Senate sent them.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, attempted to set clear ground rules for the collection, sorting, using, and selling of personal information. In its original form, the 25-page bill also contained regulations for use of facial recognition software by law enforcement and other public agencies.

Carlyle pieced together elements of data privacy laws from Europe and California into something he hoped would protect the interests of Washington residents without hamstringing corporations’ ability to use the information.

The bill sailed through the Senate on a 46-1 vote in early March — then hit a wall in the House it could not scale. Many Democrats and Republicans didn’t feel the protections for residents were strong enough and worried businesses could break rules without facing serious punishment. And facial recognition was a nonstarter for many in the House Democratic Caucus.

But SB 5376 survived an April 9 deadline for action in the House budget committee because Democratic leaders did something unusual. They stripped out all of its content and replaced it with a long opening paragraph espousing a whole bunch of good intentions on how the state really wants to make sure corporations don’t abuse the private information of consumers they collect.

At that point, Democratic leaders sought help from a few select forces in the high-tech world who knew how data gathering and facial recognition software worked and how to keep misuse in check. They’re also the ones that need consumer information for their bottom lines.

They sat them down with a hand-picked crew of lawmakers to work on language that might pass in both chambers.

The move quickly blew up into a political poop storm as word got out about who was invited to the closed-door negotiations and who wasn’t.

Microsoft, Amazon, Comcast and the Association of Washington Businesses had seats at the table with the seven legislators — four House Democrats, two Senate Democrats (including the bill’s sponsor) and one House Republican.

No Senate Republican received an invite. Neither did any representatives of the consumer, technology, civil rights, law enforcement or legal organizations which had opposed the bill passed by the Senate and much of a reworked version in the House technology committee.

To critics, this looked pretty much like the regulated writing the regulations.

Shankar Narayan, technology and liberty project director for the ACLU, issued a blunt statement April 10 when the confab held its first meeting.

“With this move, tech corporations have made it clear that they will seize the opportunity to regulate their own business as loosely as possible, by willfully neglecting to include impacted communities in the discussion,” he said. “The Legislature should halt this broken process and come back in the interim to have a real stakeholder conversation.”

The chosen ones met five times in three days, with the last session occurring April 12. They stopped meeting no doubt in part because one participant, Hudgins, kept informing dozens of interested people about the progress, even sending out copies of language under discussion. Carlyle wasn’t amused.

Conversations happened in smaller groups ahead of Wednesday’s critical deadline.

On Monday, the legislative director for Gov. Jay Inslee wrote a rough draft of language based on what he heard while facilitating those earlier meetings.

On Tuesday, Hudgins put out a version that could be the one voted on in the House.

But nothing ever reached the floor. With less than two weeks to go in the session, there’s time for twists in this drama.

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@herald net.com. Twitter: @dospueblos.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Students from Explorer Middle School gather Wednesday around a makeshift memorial for Emiliano “Emi” Munoz, who died Monday, May 5, after an electric bicycle accident in south Everett. (Aspen Anderson / The Herald)
Community and classmates mourn death of 13-year-old in bicycle accident

Emiliano “Emi” Munoz died from his injuries three days after colliding with a braided cable.

Danny Burgess, left, and Sandy Weakland, right, carefully pull out benthic organisms from sediment samples on Thursday, May 1, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
‘Got Mud?’ Researchers monitor the health of the Puget Sound

For the next few weeks, the state’s marine monitoring team will collect sediment and organism samples across Puget Sound

Everett postal workers gather for a portrait to advertise the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County letter carriers prepare for food drive this Saturday

The largest single-day food drive in the country comes at an uncertain time for federal food bank funding.

Everett
Everett considers ordinance to require more apprentice labor

It would require apprentices to work 15% of the total labor hours for construction or renovation on most city projects over $1 million.

Snohomish County prosecutor Kara Van Slyck delivers closing statement during the trial of Christian Sayre at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Thursday, May 8, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Jury deliberations begin in the fourth trial of former Everett bar owner

Jury members deliberated for about 2 hours before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Millie Judge sent them home until Monday.

Christian Sayre sits in the courtroom before the start of jury selection on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Christian Sayre timeline

FEBRUARY 2020 A woman reports a sexual assault by Sayre. Her sexual… Continue reading

Everett Historic Theater owner Curtis Shriner inside the theater on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Historic Everett Theatre sale on horizon, future uncertain

With expected new ownership, events for July and August will be canceled. The schedule for the fall and beyond is unclear.

A “SAVE WETLANDS” poster is visible under an seat during a public hearing about Critical Area Regulations Update on ordinance 24-097 on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County Council passes controversial critical habitat ordinance

People testified for nearly two hours, with most speaking in opposition to the new Critical Areas Regulation.

Marysville
Marysville talks middle housing at open house

City planning staff say they want a ‘soft landing’ to limit the impacts of new state housing laws. But they don’t expect their approach to slow development.

Smoke from the Bolt Creek fire silhouettes a mountain ridge and trees just outside of Index on Sept. 12, 2022. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County will host two wildfire-preparedness meetings in May

Meetings will allow community members to learn wildfire mitigation strategies and connect with a variety of local and state agencies.

A speed limiter device, like this one, will be required for repeat speeding offenders under a Washington law signed on May 12, 2025. The law doesn’t take effect until 2029. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
Washington to rein in fast drivers with speed limiters

A new law set to take effect in 2029 will require repeat speeding offenders to install the devices in their vehicles.

Commuters from Whidbey Island disembark their vehicles from the ferry Tokitae on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 in Mukilteo, Wa.  (Andy Bronson / The Herald)
Bids for five new hybrid ferries come in high

It’s raising doubts about the state’s plans to construct up to five new hybrid-electric vessels with the $1.3 billion lawmakers have set aside.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.