The My Health My Data Act (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. Pro-Choice Washington, Gender Justice League, Legal Voice, Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, ACLU of Washington, WA People’s Privacy and other reproductive justice, privacy, gender justice, and immigrant rights groups all support this bill.
If you live in Washington state, it’s easy to ask your legislators to support 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
- Fill in your address and click Verify District
- Select the legislators you want to sent it to. The bill is currently being heard in the House, so select House
- Choose your position — SUPPORT!
- Fill out the rest of the form and click on Send Comment.
Your comment doesn’t have to be fancy — cut and paste the script from above, or even just “Don’t let tech companies want to write our privacy laws” is fine. Or, you can write your own comment from scratch.
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 — “This bill provides critical protections for my health data – and my family’s”. 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
SUPPORT 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 Representative Y and Representative Z,
Please support the 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 ending Roe are now an even more urgent civil rights issue.
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!