SEARCH SITE

VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

ACROSS SESSIONS

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2000 SESSION


CHAPTER 405
An Act to amend and reenact § 2.1-380 of the Code of Virginia, relating to privacy.
[H 513]
Approved April 4, 2000

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 2.1-380 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 2.1-380. Administration of systems including personal information; Internet privacy policy.

A. Any agency maintaining an information system that includes personal information shall:

1. Collect, maintain, use, and disseminate only that personal information permitted or required by law to be so collected, maintained, used, or disseminated, or necessary to accomplish a proper purpose of the agency;

2. Collect information to the greatest extent feasible from the data subject directly;

3. Establish categories for maintaining personal information to operate in conjunction with confidentiality requirements and access controls;

4. Maintain information in the system with accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and pertinence as necessary to assure fairness in determinations relating to a data subject;

5. Make no dissemination to another system without (i) specifying requirements for security and usage including limitations on access thereto, and (ii) receiving reasonable assurances that those requirements and limitations will be observed, provided this subdivision shall not apply to a dissemination made by an agency to an agency in another state, district or territory of the United States where the personal information is requested by the agency of such other state, district or territory in connection with the application of the data subject therein for a service, privilege or right under the laws thereof, nor shall this apply to information transmitted to family advocacy representatives of the United States Armed Forces in accordance with subsection I of § 63.1-248.6 H;

6. Maintain a list of all persons or organizations having regular access to personal information in the information system;

7. Maintain for a period of three years or until such time as the personal information is purged, whichever is shorter, a complete and accurate record, including identity and purpose, of every access to any personal information in a system, including the identity of any persons or organizations not having regular access authority but excluding access by the personnel of the agency wherein data is put to service for the purpose for which it is obtained;

8. Take affirmative action to establish rules of conduct and inform each person involved in the design, development, operation, or maintenance of the system, or the collection or use of any personal information contained therein, about all the requirements of this chapter, the rules and procedures, including penalties for noncompliance, of the agency designed to assure compliance with such requirements;

9. Establish appropriate safeguards to secure the system from any reasonably foreseeable threat to its security;

10. Collect no personal information concerning the political or religious beliefs, affiliations, and activities of data subjects which is maintained, used or disseminated in or by any information system operated by any agency unless authorized explicitly by statute or ordinance.

B. By December 1, 2000, every public body, as defined in § 2.1-341, that has an Internet Web site associated with that public body shall develop an Internet privacy policy and an Internet privacy policy statement that explains the policy to the public. The policy shall be consistent with the requirements of this chapter. By January 1, 2001, the statement shall be made available on the public body's Web site in a conspicuous manner. The Secretary of Technology or his designee shall provide guidelines for developing the policy and the statement, and each public body shall tailor the policy and the statement to reflect the information practices of the individual public body. At minimum, the policy and the statement shall address (i) what information, including personally identifiable information, will be collected, if any; (ii) whether any information will be automatically collected simply by accessing the Web site and, if so, what information; (iii) whether the Web site automatically places a computer file, commonly referred to as a "cookie," on the Internet user's computer and, if so, for what purpose; and (iv) how the collected information is being used or will be used.