The Office of Privacy and Data Protection is happy to announce that public employees with access to the state’s Learning Center can access our new privacy training called Washington Privacy Framework: Building a Foundation for your Privacy Program. This training builds on the Privacy Basics training and is a more focused course for privacy professionals looking to create or mature existing privacy programs.
The Washington Privacy Framework is built on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Privacy Framework and helps agencies create strong privacy programs. This course gives an overview of the framework, explaining its purpose, key functions, and main components. Participants will learn about specific tasks and outputs that align with Washington State's Privacy Principles and gain a deeper understanding of its five core functions: Identify, Govern, Protect, Communicate, and Respond. The course also covers how the framework can be adapted to fit different agency needs and privacy challenges. This training is designed for state employees responsible for privacy, as well as anyone interested in developing or improving a privacy program.
At this time the training is only available to those with access to the Washington State Learning Center, but we plan to release an online YouTube version later this spring.
For more information about the Washington Privacy Framework and additional training and materials you can visit our website at https://watech.wa.gov/privacy-data-protection/government-agency-resources.
Privacy Week 2025
In case you missed it, OPDP celebrated a fantastic Data Privacy Week with presentations from both the Future of Privacy Forum and World Privacy Forum. In addition, OPDP debuted some fun privacy minutes and a special Privacy edition of Between Two Nerds. Congrats to our winners of AI Kahoot at ESD and Biometric Crossword at LCB.
Legislative Session 2025
WaTech continues to follow several bills focused on privacy, technology, and artificial intelligence in this year’s legislative session. Several AI bills are still moving through the chambers, but it looks like HB 1671 on protecting personal data privacy is not moving forward this session. However, HB 1834, protecting Washington children online remains active. For a deep dive into all the bills we are tracking this session we will cover the status and impacts for state agencies at the next State Agency Privacy Forum scheduled later in March.
AI Task Force Updates
Several AI Task Force Subcommittee meetings occurred in February, including the Consumer Protection and Privacy Subcommittee on Feb. 19, 2025. We focused this meeting on Transparency in AI. In addition, the Ethical and Responsible AI Subcommittee will meet on Friday, March 14 at 11 a.m. We expect to discuss AI Principle Frameworks. For links to meetings visit Artificial Intelligence Task Force | Washington State.
Thanks and see you next month with more updates!
Katy Ruckle
State Chief Privacy Officer