Keypoint: Texas is the fifth legislature to pass a broad consumer data privacy bill this year with a bill that is a more consumer-friendly version of the Virginia law.

On May 28, 2023, the Texas legislature passed Republican Representative Giovanni Capriglione’s Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (HB 4). Subject to the procedural formalities, the bill will move to Texas Governor Greg Abbott who will then have ten days to sign in, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

Assuming the bill becomes law, Texas will become the tenth state – and fifth state this year – to pass a consumer data privacy bill. With a population of over thirty million people, Texas will be the second largest state (after California) to pass such legislation.

Importantly, the Texas bill passed the legislature after a conference committee process that reconciled differences between the versions that passed the House and Senate. The conference committee made changes to the bill such that reports or summaries of the bill before it passed the legislature on May 28 may be outdated.

The bill generally follows the Virginia model with some notable variations discussed below. Click here if you would like to see a more detailed comparison of the Texas bill against the nine other state laws enacted to date.…

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