This bill reenacts and amends RCW 42.56.230 (the public records personal information exemptions) and adds a new exemption that makes email addresses of individuals who submit their information to a local agency to subscribe to regular communications and updates (for example, agency newsletters) exempt from public inspection and copying. The amended section restates a range of exemptions for personal information, including student, patient, and welfare recipient records; child care and youth program records; employee, appointee, and elected official privacy; taxpayer, payment card, and other financial information; small loan and certain licensing records; driver’s license, identicard, and vehicle/vessel registration records; 911 and emergency notification system data; future voter information; gambling self-exclusion program submissions; bump-fire stock buy-back participant information; and state lottery player personal and financial information with specified limits. The change is a modification to existing public records law creating a new privacy exemption and includes procedural disclosure provisions: upon legislative request the Department of Licensing must provide a report with specified disclosure-eligible information; the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals must provide copies of all final claim resolution settlement agreements to the Department of Labor and Industries; emergency contact information may be provided to appropriate authorities and medical personnel for treating an individual during an emergency; and certain state lottery additional information may be released only with prior written player permission. The text provided does not include definitions for terms like “local agency” or “regular communications and updates,” does not include legislative intent or an effective date, and may not be the entire bill.

If passed, the main practical effect is that people who give their email address to a local government to subscribe to newsletters or regular updates can expect those addresses to be kept out of public records requests. Local agencies that run subscription lists will be able to withhold subscriber email addresses, and subscribers will face a lower risk of having their addresses released publicly. The bill also keeps in place and clarifies other privacy carve-outs and duties: the Department of Licensing must provide certain disclosure-eligible information to the legislature on request, the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals must send copies of final claim resolution settlement agreements to the Department of Labor and Industries, emergency contact information may be shared with authorities and medical personnel during treatment, and additional lottery player information can be released only with the player’s prior written permission. Who is most affected are local agencies (new withholding authority and ongoing obligations) and the people who subscribe (greater privacy); the text does not define key terms like “local agency” or “regular communications,” nor does it provide effective dates or other implementation details.