Ohio is joining the likes of Massachusetts, New York, and Texas by introducing a privacy bill. The Ohio Personal Privacy Act (House Bill 376) would apply to companies with sales above $25 million or ones that keep records on more than 100,000 customers, similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act; however, it differs from the CCPA in that the legislation has been tailored to protect small and midsized businesses.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, Rep. Rick Carfagna, R-Genoa Township said, “It’s going to be a very small number of their members who are impacted” (Staver, 2021). Ohio lawmakers worked closely with the Ohio chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses to ensure they’re creating a privacy policy, that according to Carrie Kuruc, deputy director of InnovateOhio, says “other states and the federal government can use as a model.”

InnovateOhio, led by Lt. Governor Jon Husted, aims to develop new and creative solutions to improve services and cut expenses in state government. CyberOhio is a branch of InnovateOhio with an Advisory Committee of cybersecurity experts and business leaders headed by Kirk M. Herath. In a first for state privacy bills “CyberOhio considered other state’s privacy laws when drafting the OPPA, and attempted to come up with an alternative to the California/CCPA/CPRA model” said Herath, when speaking to Consumer Privacy World (Bryan, 2021). This resulted in Ohio placing a strong emphasis on the NIST framework.

Here are some key consumer rights in House Bill 376, the proposed Ohio Personal Privacy Act:

• Ask to see what data a company has collected. 
• Request a correction to any inaccurate information in that data. 
• Delete their data at any time for any reason. 
• Tell a company to stop selling their data. 
• Go directly to the Ohio attorney general’s office with complaints, but no private right of action would exist under this legislation. 

Truyo’s president, Dan Clarke, says, “In the absence of comprehensive federal policy on the collection and use of personal information, my home state of Ohio has taken the initiative in introducing a moderate privacy law. By following the examples in Colorado and Virginia and explicitly exempting a private right of action, this new proposed bill may have the support necessary to become law.”

Truyo will keep you up to date on progress of the Ohio Personal Privacy Act. Sign up for our newsletter to receive prompt notification of all state changes.

Resources

Bryan, K. (2021, July 14). BREAKING: Ohio’s Legislature Considering Passing the Ohio Personal Privacy Act with Support of Governor DeWine and Lt. Governor Husted. Consumer Privacy World. https://www.consumerprivacyworld.com/2021/07/breaking-ohios-legislature-considering-passing-the-ohio-personal-privacy-act-with-support-of-governor-dewine-and-lt-governor-husted/

Staver, A. (2021, July 13). Data privacy: Ohio introduces bill to let consumers see, delete the info companies keep. The Columbus Dispatch. https://eu.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/07/13/ohio-data-privacy-bill-would-let-consumers-delete-data-companies-keep/7949689002/