Oklahoma's Data Protection Law: A Comprehensive Guide

Note: As of yet, this State doesn't have a comprehensive data privacy law. You can visit our US State Privacy Law Tracker to stay updated on the progress of privacy-related bills across the United States (US).

Businesses leverage data to make strategic decisions, enhance product experiences, and fuel technological advancements. This data is used further to train GenAI models and applications or fine-tune their performance. This data is vulnerable to various privacy, security, and compliance threats without proper policies and controls.

For instance, if a business doesn’t have proper security measures for an SW3 bucket containing sensitive data, it may allow unauthorized access. Similarly, if a dataset is used to train an AI model without redacting sensitive data or placing proper controls around data with cross-border applications, it could result in security and legal risks.

Recognizing the need to safeguard data and people’s privacy, data protection laws impose certain obligations on businesses. Almost every major country has some data privacy and protection regulations.

In fact, several countries have enacted comprehensive privacy laws, such as Brazil, Singapore, India, Saudi Arabia, and many others. Many states in the US have also passed comprehensive state-specific laws, such as California, Colorado, Florida, and Texas, and others are following suit.

In this blog, we will examine Oklahoma’s regulatory landscape and discuss the factors businesses must consider to ensure data safe and responsible use.

Understanding Oklahoma's Data Regulatory Estate

Oklahoma doesn’t have a general data privacy or protection act but includes basic privacy regulations in the Oklahoma Constitution. Moreover, it has other privacy-related legislation that enables it to require businesses to encourage safe data management and protection practices. For instance, the Oklahoma Financial Privacy Act protects customers' financial data. No business is allowed to disclose a customer's financial records to a government agency unless the customer provides written consent or a subpoena.

Similarly, businesses operating in Oklahoma must be aware of and comply with several national laws and industry standards. Take, for instance, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA is a federal law in the United States, hence applicable to businesses nationwide. It is designed and enacted to ensure that customers' credit report data are handled and kept with due accuracy, fairness, and privacy. Similarly, it lays down detailed provisions for credit reporting agencies that promote fairness and accuracy.

For instance, the act requires credit reporting agencies to adopt and ensure reasonable procedures to verify consumer reports. The act further requires agencies to take due actions and measures to prevent identity theft. More importantly, the act also empowers consumers with a series of privacy rights, such as the right to correct/delete your data or the right to disclose your credit score.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is yet another widely applicable regulation in the US. It requires covered entities to always safeguard the protected health information (PHI) of patients or individuals. Violations of the law may result in severe monetary penalties.

Similarly, businesses may be subject to several other federal laws and regulations, such as GLBA, FCA, FERPA, etc., that have data privacy-related provisions while operating in Oklahoma.

Implications for Businesses

Meet Compliance

Businesses operating in the state must ensure that their data privacy and management practices comply with various federal and state legislations. A privacy assessment can help pinpoint and mitigate organizational compliance and risk gaps.

Ensure Data Protection

Almost every regulation and industry standard requires businesses to have reasonable organizational, administrative, and technical controls in place to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data. Organizations should also ensure that data is protected against unauthorized access, sensitive data exposure, and data leaks.

Consumer Trust

Compliance is important not only to avoid huge monetary fines from regulatory authorities but also to demonstrate best data handling practices and promote consumer trust.

Conclusion

Although there is no comprehensive data protection law in Oklahoma yet, the businesses operating in the state must comply with other applicable sector-specific federal laws with data privacy-related requirements to ensure the safe and responsible use of data.