Law note · Washington
Washington Biometric Identifiers
What it asks of an app
- Before enrolling someone's biometric identifier, a fingerprint, voiceprint, retina or iris scan, or other unique biological pattern used to identify them, in a database for a commercial purpose, provide notice, obtain consent, or provide a mechanism to prevent that subsequent commercial use.
- An ordinary scraped photograph, video, or audio recording, and data generated from one, is never a biometric identifier under this chapter, with no exception for a photo or recording used to identify a specific individual.
- Only the Washington Attorney General may enforce this chapter, under the Consumer Protection Act; there is no private right of action here, unlike the My Health My Data Act's own private right of action.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webprocesses_biometrics
What we found
This chapter requires that a person not enroll a biometric identifier in a database for a commercial purpose without first providing notice, obtaining consent, or providing a mechanism to prevent the subsequent use of the biometric identifier for a commercial purpose.
"Biometric identifier" categorically excludes an ordinary physical or digital photograph, video, or audio recording, and data generated from one, with no exception for a photo or recording generated or used to identify a specific individual; the "used to identify a specific individual" language in this chapter instead qualifies the affirmative half of the definition (a measurement of a fingerprint, voiceprint, retina, iris, or other unique biological pattern), not the photograph and recording exclusion.
Unlike MHMDA, this chapter may be enforced solely by the attorney general under the consumer protection act, with no private right of action, unlike Illinois's BIPA. The derived corpus candidate for this chapter arrived with an empty url field, which is resolved here to the correct, working official Washington State Legislature citation used throughout this document.
Primary source
official text, Washington State Legislature (app.leg.wa.gov)