Keypoint: Our legislating data privacy podcast series kicks off with an in-depth conversation with Representative Collin Walke of Oklahoma.
As readers of this blog know, the emergence of broad state consumer privacy legislation has been one of the dominant stories in privacy law since at least June 2018 when California lawmakers passed the California Consumer Privacy Act in response to Alastair Mactaggart’s ballot measure. State lawmakers have jumped into the void created by the absence of federal privacy legislation and tackled this complicated issue. In 2021 alone, lawmakers in 26 states proposed CCPA-like privacy legislation. While the federal government may eventually pass federal privacy legislation, there can be no doubt that state lawmakers are at the forefront of developing the principles that will form the foundation of privacy law in this country.
Given the importance of these issues, we decided to launch a limited podcast series interviewing some of the prominent state lawmakers who have authored these bills.
Our first guest is Oklahoma Representative Collin Walke, who was one of the authors of HB 1602, the Oklahoma Computer Data Privacy Act (Act). In March, Representative Walke put Oklahoma on the privacy law map when he steered the Act through the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Although the bill eventually failed in the Senate, Representative Walke intends to introduce it again next year in the hopes of providing Oklahoma residents with strong privacy rights.
Click here to listen to our conversation with Representative Walke.