Bill Text: WV HB5156 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibiting public disclosure of personal information on the internet
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 11-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-25 - To House Judiciary [HB5156 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2024-HB5156-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2024 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 5156
By Delegates Rohrbach, Shamblin, Holstein, W. Hall, Worrell, Chiarelli, Crouse, Householder, Toney, Winzenreid, and Fehrenbacher
[Introduced January 25, 2024; Referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-2-17, relating to prohibiting the public disclosure of personal information on the internet; and providing for penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-17. Prohibiting public disclosure of personal information on the internet; penalties.
(a) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Immediate family" means a health care worker's spouse, child, or parent or any other blood relative who lives in the same residence as the health care worker;
(2) "Health care worker" means an employee, contracted healthcare provider, or individual serving in a governance capacity of a hospital;
(3) "Hospital" means a facility licensed pursuant to the provisions of article 5b of this chapter and any acute care facility operated by the state government, that primarily provides inpatient diagnostic, treatment or rehabilitative services to injured, disabled or sick persons under the supervision of physicians;
(4) "Personal information" means the home address, home telephone number, personal mobile telephone number, pager number, personal e-mail address, or a personal photograph or video of a health care worker; directions to the home of a health care worker; or photographs or videos of the home or vehicle of a healthcare worker.
(b) A person who knowingly makes the personal information of a health care worker, or a health care worker’s immediate family, publicly available on the internet:
(1) With the intent to threaten, intimidate, or incite the commission of a crime of violence against that person; or
(2) With the intent and knowledge that the personal information will be used to threaten, intimidate, or facilitate the commission of a crime of violence against that person is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $500 or confined in jail not more than one year, or both fined and confined.
(c) A health care worker may submit a written request to a state or local government official to remove personal information from records that are available on the internet. If a state or local government receives the written request, then the state or local government official shall not knowingly make available on the internet personal information about the health care worker or the health care worker’s immediate family.
(d) A health care worker’s written request to a state or local government official to remove records that the official makes available on the internet shall include:
(1) Evidence that the person submitting the request is a health care worker, as defined in this section; and
(2) An affirmation stating under penalty of perjury that the person submitting the requestion has reason to believe that the dissemination of the personal information contained in the records that the official makes available on the internet poses an imminent and serious threat to the person’s safety or the safety of the person’s immediate family.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit the public disclosure of personal information on the internet, and to create penalties.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
