CUNA commented on data security/privacy and remote notary legislation in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce Wednesday. The subcommittee conducted a markup of several bills including the American Data Protection and Privacy Act (H.R. 8152) and the Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act of 2021 (HR. 3692).

H.R. 8152 is designed to provide data privacy rights, create oversight mechanisms, and establish enforcement regarding data privacy and security.

CUNA noted the bill’s agreement with its data security and privacy principles as outlined in previous communications to the committee. These include:

• Keeping the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act standard intact.
• Addressing both data security and privacy through a comprehensive framework.
• Including of all entities under Federal Trade Commission jurisdiction in the standard.
• Establishing a national standard to avoid the current patchwork of state laws.
• Creating enforcement measures to address the harms that result from privacy and security violations.

CUNA also noted concern over the feasibility of a requirement in H.R. 8152 calling for all covered entities to appoint a privacy officer and a data security officer.

H.R. 3962 would authorize the use of remote online notarization and create national standards and protections for its use. CUNA strongly supports the bill.

“The COVID-19 pandemic complicated person-to-person contact and made it difficult, if not impossible in some cases, to secure in-person notary services,” the letter reads. “Some states have remote notarization laws in effect; other states’ governors issued temporary executive orders permitting remote notarization. However, given the fact that the pandemic has affected every state and county in the country and that many of the notary requirements emanate from Federal law, CUNA strongly believes it would be in the interest of public policy to have a federal law permitting remote online notarization.”