HB 716 which as originally drafted and passed through the House of Delegates would have mandated municipalities implement burdensome and costly data privacy standards to protect personally identifiable information. MML worked with the bill sponsor to exempt municipalities from the bill which was supported by the Senate. However, due to the fact that the House passed version and the Senate passed version were not identical and neither side would recede from their posture the bill ran out of time on the final day of the General Assembly session and did not pass.
Due to its failure, the current landscape for how municipalities treat data privacy remains as it is today. Current law states that those municipalities that handle personal information must have reasonable policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorized use during collection, retention, and destruction of such files.