My Health My Data (HB 1155) provides strong privacy protections for Washingtonians’ health data. It blocks apps and websites — like period trackers, search engines and advertisers — from collecting and sharing Washingtonians’ health data without their consent, and prohibits sales of health data. Later this week the House will vote on whether to “concur” and accept the Senate’s stronger version of the bill. If they do, My Health My Data passes! If the House doesn’t concur, then big tech companies will have a chance to weaken it or keep it from passing – leaving people at risk so they can keep exploiting our data.
So if you live in Washington state, now’s a crucial time to tell your legislators to pass My Health My Data. Here’s the instructions for how to do it using the web form on the legislature’s site, phone, or email.
Using the web form on the state legislature’s web site
Commenting on a bill on the state legislature’s web site is an easy way to let your legislators know your position on the bill and send any comments to one or all of your state legislatures. Here’s how:
- Click here to go to the comment page for HB 1155, My Health My Data. [Somewhat confusingly, it says ESHB 1155 at the top — that’s the current version of the bill]
- Fill in your address and click Verify District
- Select the legislators you want to sent it to. We suggest selecting all of them: the next vote is in the House, but depending on how that goes there may be a followup vote soon after in the Senate.
- Choose your position — SUPPORT!
- Fill out the rest of the form and click on Send Comment.
Your comment doesn’t have to be fancy — something like “Please concur and pass the Senate version of My Health My Data. We need strong protections for health data and reproductive rights.” is fine.
Or, you can write your own comment from scratch, or use this script as a starting point. If you’ve got a story about how your health data has been used against you — or how you fear it could be — that’s great to include. You can even just cut-and-paste the script if you’re pressed for time!
Please CONCUR and pass the Senate version of My Health My Data Act (ESHB 1155). This bill provides critical protections for my health data – and my family’s, and your other constituents. These protections are long overdue and after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe are now even more urgent for people seeking reproductive and sexual health care. Please vote YES to concur with the Senate version!
By phone
If you prefer to call, the legislative hotline at 1–800–562–6000 (TTY for Hearing Impaired 800.833.6388) also lets you get a message to all your legislators at once.
- Tell them the you’re calling about HB 1155 — you support it and want to leave a comment.
- They’ll ask for your address, and then what you want to say about the bill.
The staffer has to type in whatever you say, so it’s fine to keep it simple — “Please concur and pass the Senate version of this bill.”. Or you can go into more detail, like the script above.
By email
Legislators are getting a lot of email right now so there is no guarantee they’ll read it, but they are at least likely to see the subject line — so it is very important to include all the information there so they know what you want them to do. Choose a subject line like
CONCUR and PASS My Health My Data (HB 1155)
For the addresses, we’ve got a lists of State Representatives’ and Senator’s email addresses HERE. If you’re not sure who your legislators are, start by looking up your district using the legislature’s District Finder. It’s easiest to send a single email to all three of your lawmakers, or you can mail each one individually.
For the contents, all you need to do is cut-and-paste and do a little editing — fill in your legislators’ names, and then include your name and city at the bottom so they know you’re a constituent.
Dear Representatives X and Y,
Please CONCUR and pass the Senate version of My Health My Data Act (HB 1155). This bill provides critical protections for my health data – and my family’s, and your other constituents. These protections are long overdue and after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe are now even more urgent for people seeking reproductive and sexual health care.
You can edit it however you want, or write your own email from scratch. Double check it to make sure you’ve got their names in there, and make sure to sign it with your name and city … then click send and you’re done!