Consumer data protection is increasingly important in the digital age. Although the United States does not currently have a federal data privacy protection law, states are free to enact their own consumer data privacy protections. From the Texas Privacy Act to their identity theft laws, anyone doing business in Texas needs to comply with all state and federal guidelines. Keeping up with these changes to the law, within Texas and other states, can be time-consuming and expensive. A Texas privacy policy generator can help take the cost and effort out of Texas data privacy compliance.
SixFifty has created state-specific privacy tools, including tools to generate a privacy policy. Read on to learn more about Texas data protection laws, and how our proprietary privacy tools can make compliance easier and more cost-effective than ever.
Who is affected by Texas data privacy laws?
Anyone collecting, storing, and processing consumer data from Texas residents needs to have a compliant privacy policy and notice. If your company collects student data, medical data, or biometric data, it’s especially important that you understand Texas state privacy law requirements.
While remedies for violations differ, depending on the state law, they often include fines, injunctive relief, and other equitable remedies.
What’s the difference between privacy policies and privacy notices?
You might be wondering why you need two different documents. A privacy notice is the public document that you post for consumers to see. It outlines your personal information gathering practices, telling consumers what you do with their data. A privacy policy is an internal document that your employees follow. It tells them how they should handle consumers’ personal information.
Texas state privacy laws
Texas does not have a comprehensive privacy policy law yet. However, there are several privacy-related acts governing certain sectors and scenarios, such as healthcare, cybercrime, and data breaches.
These laws include:
- Texas Privacy Act: This 2019 law made changes to earlier data breach notification laws. Companies now must provide notice of data breaches affecting individual consumers, within 60 days of the breach. If the data breach affects 250 or more people, the company must notify the Texas Attorney General’s office. Finally, the Act created the Privacy Protection Advisory Council, which advises on potential changes to existing privacy laws.
- Biometric Privacy Law: This privacy law prevents anyone from capturing and selling any biometric information without the person’s explicit consent. This includes scanning the iris, fingerprinting, or scanning facial geometry.
- Identity Theft Law: The Identity Theft Law prevents individuals, businesses, and other entities from using anyone’s personal information to receive personal credit, goods, or services. The law requires companies to adopt consumer data protection policies, including procedures to ensure data privacy and security.
- Medical Privacy Act: This state law adds additional protections for medical data, beyond HIPAA requirements. The Medical Privacy Act requires companies to provide electronic health records at a patient’s request. Companies must obtain the patient’s authorization to disclose any health-related information. The act also requires employees to undergo related training, and sets requirements to notify consumers of any data breaches.
- Student Privacy Act: The Student Privacy Act prevents the sale of student personal data. Companies may not create ads for students based on data shared by educational institutions or suppliers. It also prevents universities and other entities from sharing student data.
- Texas Cybercrime Act: This law makes it a criminal offense to engage in DoS (denial of service) attacks, ransomware facilities, or intentional data alteration. While most businesses will not need to worry about compliance, it’s designed to provide additional protection for consumers.
Is there a Texas privacy policy template?
Creating a Texas privacy policy and notice might be easier if you have a template. Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all privacy policies and notices often do not cover each applicable scenario. It’s important that you keep up with any changes to privacy laws on both the state and federal level.
SixFifty’s Texas privacy policy generator is designed to address these needs. Instead of asking your in-house legal team to draft these documents and monitor changes to the law, or seeking outside counsel, your company can generate a comprehensive Texas privacy policy and notice quickly. You’ll also receive notifications when you need to regenerate your documents: our privacy tools are automatically updated on a monthly basis. You’ll know whenever there are important changes to the law, and whether you need to further amend your privacy policy and notice.
Our software pairs technology with real legal expertise, so you’ll get a compliant policy and notice in record time. Simply answer a series of questions, download the generated document, and have your lawyer review. It’s the easiest way to ensure compliance and avoid incurring hefty penalties.
Generate a Texas privacy policy with SixFifty
If your company does business in Texas, you need a compliant privacy policy and notice. Compliance is simple with SixFifty’s Texas privacy policy generator. In minutes, you’ll have a comprehensive document ready for legal review—and you’ll stay updated whenever the laws change. Reach out to us today to schedule a demo, or learn more about our privacy tools!
