July 2022 Privacy Points

It's that time of year again when agencies subject to state certification requirements must fill out their annual certification and Privacy Assessment Survey. The deadline for completing the survey is Sept. 30, 2022.

This year's survey is substantially the same as last year's. We will hold a virtual walkthrough of the assessment in August to answer questions and help those new to the process. The Office of Privacy and Data Protection's (OPDP) annual report is based on the survey. You can find the 2021 report on the OPDP website.

Upcoming Meetings

Watch for invite to the Quarterly State Agency Privacy Forum meeting. This session is geared to state employees with an interest in privacy, or whose work involves privacy, Attendees often include agency privacy professionals, IT workforce members, and IT security professionals, as well as contracts, risk, legal, legislative, records, and public records professionals. If you are a state employee and have not attended our meetings before, please feel free to reach out to be added to the mailing list at privacy@watech.wa.gov.

  • Date: Thursday, August 25, 2022
  • Time: 10 a.m. to 11a.m.
  • Place: Virtual Teams meeting

In Case You Missed It:

  • StateScoop Podcast Interview: I was interviewed by StateScoop on privacy and the growing trend of states hiring chief privacy officers. Washington has the distinction of being the only state with a privacy office that was created in statute and has its own budget. Check out the podcast where I also discussed the importance of incorporating privacy into IT projects.
  • July Webinar on Privacy Metrics: The OPDP hosted a webinar last month on measuring privacy and ways to think about and incorporate metrics to measure progress and deliverables for your agency's privacy program. Please visit our website for the July 21, 2022 presentation and slide deck.
  • Federal Privacy Legislation Update: A federal privacy bill known as the American Data Privacy and Protection Act may be heading to the U.S. House floor for a potential vote after being passed by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. There continues to be debate about many of the bill's provisions, but this is the furthest a comprehensive consumer privacy bill has advanced in recent memory. For more see American Data Privacy and Protection Act heads for US House floor from IAPP.

See you next month with more updates from our office!

Katy Ruckle

State Chief Privacy Officer