2018 Virginia General Assembly Wrap-Up: Privacy-Related Bills

April 27, 2018

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 approximately 3700  magnifying glass Several privacy-related bills were on the legislative agenda, but few were enacted into law. 
Bills and resolutions considered by the 2018 Regular Session of the Virginia General Assembly.

 

 

Privacy-Related Bills Enacted into Law

 

 

 tax security  

Obligations on State Tax Return Preparers

Tax return preparers must notify the Virginia Department of Taxation if they believe unencrypted tax return information was accessed by a unauthorized person for the purposes of identity theft. 
 300,000
 It is estimated that this notification will save Virginia $300,000 by avoiding the issuance of unrecoverable fraudulent refunds. 

 

 

 

Certain student directory information held by higher education institutions may only be released in limited circumstances in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.   student forms

 

 $5 credit cards A credit reporting agency may only charge $5 to place a security freeze on a consumer’s credit report, reduced from $10. 

 

Additional information about these and other privacy-related bills from the 2018 Virginia General Assembly can be found on the Password Protected blog, in the latest article, “2018 Virginia General Assembly Wrap-Up: Modest Privacy-Related Bills Adopted”, by McGuireWoods Consulting’s senior vice president Chris Nolen.