Data Privacy Issues in West Virginia and Beyond: A Comprehensive Overview

This white paper was commissioned by the Center for Consumer Law and Education, a joint initiative launched by West Virginia University and Marshall University to “coordinate the development of consumer law, policy, and education research to support and serve consumers.”

As such, this paper has a dual purpose. First, it provides a comprehensive overview of the many different legal issues that affect data privacy concerns (both nationally and in West Virginia). Second, it documents and discusses the result of a survey and specific focus groups that were undertaken throughout the fall of 2019 into January 2020 where individuals within the state provided valuable feedback regarding what they felt were the most pressing data privacy issues and what they would like in a law. These responses (along with the extensive research that was undertaken regarding other statutes, cases and responses across the nation and the world) were used to formulate best practices for legislative recommendations.