Texas to lead nation with ‘most consumer-friendly’ data privacy bill, state lawmaker says

Watchdog: You once told me that I was the only person in Texas who can pronounce your name correctly.

Giovanni: Still are.

Dog: First, I want to talk about your creativity. When you were fighting a few years back for a privacy law, you used personal information available on social media to tell the committee members — your colleagues — something about their lives. And they were surprised. And now this time around for your artificial intelligence bill, you argued for it by reading a statement created by AI. Explain how you did that.

Gio: I told the AI software that I was presenting a bill about creating an AI advisory committee. I’m a Republican House member, and I’d like my colleagues to support it. I concluded my request by stating “End with a joke.” I waited, ‘dot, dot, dot,’ and the statement came out.

Dog: So what was the joke?

Gio: The joke was terrible. I concluded by saying, “And on a lighter note, I’d like to end with a joke. Why did the robot cross the road? To get to the other motherboard on the other side.”

Dog: On that meeting’s video, I saw you blamed AI for the bad joke.

Gio: The bad joke aside, people were generally floored by how good of a job it did — but also that it was right there in that room. It’s not this thing they see on the internet. This is right now in a committee of the Texas Legislature. It was very compelling. The bill passed.

Dog: The other big thing that happened is you worked for six years on a data privacy bill. This year, you got it passed.

Gio: Yes, it was just about six years, and you were right there with me when it started, writing about it. It’s affecting every single consumer. Given how much time everybody spends on their phone, on their computer and walking in front of surveillance cameras, data is being collected by companies and governments constantly. And it’s being sold and used. I’ve always felt consumers in Texas should have some rights.

Dog: What kind of data is being collected on us that we don’t know about?

Gio: Everything from your heart rate to who your friends are, to what meetings you’ve been having, to what church you go to. Have you been going to the store and buying certain things? Buying wine or beer or liquor or cigarettes? When you get in your car, everything from how fast you go to how fast you brake. When you start to add that up, along with your web searches, it creates an incredible profile that is so detailed.

Dog: So your Texas Data Privacy and Security Act — I read it, and it’s almost incomprehensible. I can’t figure out how it would affect everybody.

Gio: In general, it gives an incredible amount of rights to consumers in order to take control and protect their personal data. We have the right to know when data is being collected, the right to access the data that has been collected and to receive it in a readable format. If there’s a mistake, you have the right to correct it. If you want, you can ask them to delete it. With this law, you can also opt out of the sale of personal data, targeted advertising and data profiling. This applies in one way or another to every business in Texas.

Dog: How would I delete the data under the new law?

Gio: You’d go straight to their website, log in and go to their account button. They’ll have to provide those rights. And also, if they don’t comply, you’ll be able to go to the attorney general’s website and file a complaint.

Dog: Did I see they allocated $7 million to set this