Senate Bill 6164, introduced in the 2026 session at the request of Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech), creates a new findings section and amends existing law. It amends RCW 43.105.020 and RCW 43.105.365, and reenacts and amends RCW 42.56.230. The bill adds legislative findings about WaTech as a centralized IT partner and states an intent to protect privacy and confidentiality of personal identifying information submitted to WaTech. The bill changes procedures for state and local agencies that collect electronic individual information that is widely accessible to the public. Agencies must, to the extent possible, collect information directly from and with the consent of the individual, ensure accuracy, provide correction procedures and review mechanisms for individuals, include database creation/update dates when personally identifiable information is widely available, follow retention and archival schedules under chapter 40.14 RCW, retain personally identifiable information only as long as needed, and review collected information at least once every five years to justify its collection and purpose. It also makes information submitted to the agency for the purpose of providing information technology related to digital experience platform services exempt from public disclosure under chapter 42.56 RCW. The bill reenacts and amends the list of personal information exemptions in RCW 42.56.230 to add or clarify multiple specific exemptions from public inspection and copying. Exemptions described in the provided text include certain records for vehicle license plates, drivers’ licenses, identicards, and vessel registrations when those records alone or combined with other records may reveal an individual's identity or that the individual performed undercover or covert activities; disclosure of aggregate totals is allowed. Other exemptions in the text include certain claim resolution settlement agreements submitted to the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (except final orders), voluntarily submitted 911 and emergency notification system data, future voter information under RCW 29A.08.725, gambling self-exclusion program submissions, participant information from a specific firearms buy-back program, and state lottery player personal and financial information (limited to name and city or town unless the player consents). The board of industrial insurance appeals must provide final claim resolution settlement agreements to the Department of Labor and Industries, and the Department of Licensing must provide certain publicly disclosable licensing and registration information to the legislature on request. The provided extracts include detailed definitions (for example, “agency” means Washington Technology Solutions, “board” means the technology services board, “digital experience platform” is defined, and “cloud computing” is tied to NIST SP 800-145). The text is incomplete: portions of the reenacted RCW 42.56.230 are truncated and subsection (7)(c) and related language are missing, and the second chunk begins mid-sentence. Because the extracted facts are partial, the bill’s full text and any additional provisions or cross-references outside these extracts cannot be determined from the material provided.

If enacted, the bill would require Washington Technology Solutions and customer agencies to protect and exempt certain categories of personal information from public disclosure — most notably information submitted to WaTech for digital experience platform services — while also imposing new privacy and data-handling duties on state and local agencies that collect electronic personal information widely accessible to the public. Agencies would need to collect information directly from and, where possible, with the consent of individuals, set up procedures for correcting inaccurate information, record creation/update dates when personally identifiable information is broadly available, follow state retention schedules, retain PII only as long as needed, and review the need for collected information at least once every five years; those steps will increase ongoing administrative work and compliance costs for affected agencies. The bill reenacts and extends many specific disclosure exemptions that reduce public access to sensitive records — for example, vehicle/vessel registration and license records that could reveal undercover or confidential roles, voluntarily submitted 911 and emergency-notification data, gambling self-exclusion information, much lottery player financial data, and certain claim settlement materials — while requiring some agencies (like the Department of Licensing and the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals) to provide specified reports or copies to other agencies or the legislature. The parties most affected are WaTech, its customer agencies, state and local agencies that handle widely accessible electronic PII, the Department of Licensing, the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, 911/emergency systems, gambling operators, and the state lottery; the provided text is truncated, so some exemptions and implementation details are missing and the full scope of changes is not completely clear.