Washington Attorney General Publishes First Data Privacy Report

On August 14, 2026, Washington Attorney General (AG) Nick Brown released the state’s first-ever Data Privacy Report (the “Report”). The Report examines how the modern data economy incentivizes the collection and retention of personal information, catalogs the harms that can result from these practices and recommends that state lawmakers respond by strengthening privacy protections, enforcement and public education. It also highlights that Washington—whose proposals have inspired other states to pass such laws—continues to lack a comprehensive consumer privacy statute of its own. 

For businesses, the most relevant takeaways are that Washington may soon join the list of states with a comprehensive privacy law (and possibly even a data broker–specific law) and that, despite the lack of a comprehensive privacy law, the Washington AG’s office is paying attention to privacy-related harms and may use existing tools to bring relevant enforcement actions. Washington has historically been a