United States of America: Maryland: Biometric Data Privacy Act amended

On 10 March 2022, House Bill 259, the Biometric Data Privacy Act, has received a Committee Amendment in the Maryland House of Delegates. The bill has been renamed from "Biometric Identifier Privacy Act" to "Biometric Data Privacy Act", along with some additional changes to the definition of "biometric data". Further, the amendment extends the possible retention period of biometric data from the last interaction between collector and individual from one year to three years. The range of situations in which biometric information can be disclosed without consent has been expanded from warrants and subpoenas to a number of other categories, such as compliance with federal, state or local laws, cooperation with law enforcement, and for security or fraud prevention purposes. Individuals must also be informed of the categories of data being collected and the purpose of collection. Finally, the amendment changes the categorisation of violations of the Act, and by extension the legal action available to individuals, to "Unfair, Abusive, or Deceptive Trade Practice".