United States of America: Maryland: Biometric Identifier Privacy Act introduced in House

On 13 January 2022, House Bill 259, the Biometric Identifier Privacy Act, has been introduced in the Maryland House of Delegates. The bill would apply to private businesses collecting biometric information of individuals, defined in the Act as "biometric identifiers", and would require such businesses to make public plans specifying their data retention policies. Further, affected businesses would need to disclose biometric information to individuals on request. Further, the bill would prohibit the selling, leasing, or trading of individual biometric information. Disclosure of such information would only be permitted with the individual's written consent, or if required by a warrant or subpoena. Finally, the Act would allow individuals to recover damages in civil actions against private businesses for violations of the provisions of the Act.