When Virginia’s General Assembly first took up legislation billed as a major step toward giving regular people more control over their data in an increasingly online world, some of the first testimony lawmakers heard came from tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon.

Both companies said they were in full support of Virginia’s effort to become just the second state in America to pass its own data privacy bill, an early marker in a debate still unfolding in other states and at the national level.

Supporters of Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act, approved by the General Assembly this year and already signed by Gov. Ralph Northam, say the fact that Virginia was able to pass such significant legislation without a major fight is a testament to the quality of the bill, which lays out new consumer protections while largely shielding companies from a flood of data-related lawsuits.

Noting that an estimated 70 percent of internet traffic flows through servers in Virginia, Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, said Virginia’s legislation could be “a good starting place for a national privacy bill.”

Last month, Virginia lawmakers quietly passed one of the most restrictive bans in the country on the use of facial recognition technology.

The legislation, which won unusually broad bipartisan support, prohibits all local law enforcement agencies and campus police departments from purchasing or using facial recognition technology unless it is expressly authorized by the state legislature.

But now, some law enforcement officials are asking Gov. Ralph Northam to put the brakes on the legislation, arguing that it is overly broad and hasn’t been thoroughly vetted.

State Legislatures across the U.S. are making privacy a priority out of the gate in 2021. The number of states with proposed privacy legislation up for consideration continues to grow, including bills in Washington and Virginia that are already seeing movement.

While the track of the Washington Privacy Act has accrued quite the following, Senate Bill 1392 for Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act has begun gaining traction. On Jan. 27, 2021, the Virginia Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology voted 13–0 with one abstention in favor of moving the bill forward to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration and debate.

“Mr. Chairman, it is time,” State Sen. David Marsden, D-Va., during the meeting. Marsden introduced the bill to the Senate Jan. 13. “It is time that we find a meaningful way of protecting the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s data. … Virginia is in a unique position to be a leader on this issue. There’s a huge amount of the data on the internet that flows through the commonwealth. Privacy is not a new issue.”