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NBC4 reports Virginians’ confidential health data may be being sold without adequate consent – including data on pregnancy tests and birth control
NORFOLK, VA – New reporting from NBC Washington highlights how corporations are using loopholes to avoid following the intent of new Virginia legislation made to protect consumers from having their health data sold without consent – including restricting women’s access to healthcare products.
In response, Jay Jones, Democratic candidate for Attorney General of Virginia, released the following statement:
“Virginians’ sensitive data should be private – period. That includes the deeply personal information tied to healthcare and women’s reproductive care.
“It is the Attorney General’s responsibility to hold corporations accountable when they infringe on consumers’ freedom and rights, but Jason Miyares is once again failing to stand up for Virginians. Even now that the Commonwealth has implemented a critical law that prevents companies from collecting and selling health data – information that can easily be weaponized against women seeking reproductive care – Miyares has been silent on whether or not he’ll actually enforce it.
“As Attorney General, I’ll do what Jason Miyares won’t: enforce consumer protections, hold corporations accountable when they misuse data, and join other Attorneys General in the fight to defend reproductive freedoms in the courts.
“For years, Republicans have stood in the way of meaningful consumer protection. Virginians deserve an Attorney General who will put people over politics – not one beholden to big corporations.”
Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola, who led the charge on creating the Reproductive and Sexual Health Data Act, released the following statement calling on Jason Miyares to commit to holding corporations accountable to the new law:
“My data protection bill, which was signed into law and became effective July 1, is intended to protect personal, identifiable information related to a consumer’s purchase of reproductive or sexual health products from being released or sold without the consent of the consumer.
“In interpreting the law, some retailers are now asking for a consumer’s consent before they make a purchase, which is alarming and confusing to the ‘buying public.’ The absence of a statement that assures the public that data will not be sold is also alarming, especially since I have not seen an ‘opt-out’ consent option offered in the retail notices.
“I have asked Attorney General Miyares to issue an opinion regarding implementation issues that retailers have raised. I certainly hope that a more seamless process for procuring products can be put into place while still honoring the individual privacy and data protection elements that are fundamental to this new law.”
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