2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB5129
HB5129, the Right to Privacy Act, generally requires written consent before a state agency shares personal identifying information submitted for an occupational license.
Official caption: Relating to the security of certain personal identifying information submitted to or retained by a state agency.
Official report lists House author(s): Noble, Bell, Cecil, Capriglione, Shaheen. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB5129, the Right to Privacy Act, generally requires written consent before a state agency shares personal identifying information submitted for an occupational license.
- The definition includes home addresses and telephone numbers, personal cell numbers and email addresses, driver's-license numbers, emergency contacts and information revealing whether someone has family members.
- Important limits: Consent is not required under this section when disclosure is required or permitted by a federal statute or another Texas law, or is made by or to law enforcement for a law-enforcement purpose.
- The final law does not require all unconsented license information to be erased or fully redacted in agency files; that proposed restriction was removed.
- Sources: final law; official history; existing and new Chapter 2062 provisions.
What does it do?
HB5129, the Right to Privacy Act, generally requires written consent before a state agency shares personal identifying information submitted for an occupational license. It took effect immediately when signed June 20, 2025. The new section applies to information disseminated or retained on or after that date, not only to applications first filed afterward.
The definition includes home addresses and telephone numbers, personal cell numbers and email addresses, driver’s-license numbers, emergency contacts and information revealing whether someone has family members. State agencies include executive, legislative and judicial bodies created by Texas law, including university systems and institutions of higher education.
Important limits. Consent is not required under this section when disclosure is required or permitted by a federal statute or another Texas law, or is made by or to law enforcement for a law-enforcement purpose. Licenses and permits administered by the comptroller under the Occupations Code are excluded from this section’s occupational-license definition. Agencies must keep the written consent they obtain.
The final law does not require all unconsented license information to be erased or fully redacted in agency files; that proposed restriction was removed. Existing Section 2062.002 separately regulates information obtained through GPS, contact tracing and biometric technologies, with its own consent and exception language. HB5129 does not rewrite those rules or create a blanket right to suppress every state record.
Sources: final law; official history; existing and new Chapter 2062 provisions.
What changed along the way?
The House committee substitute added the possibility of immediate effect, replacing the introduced fixed September 1 date. Both chambers met the required two-thirds vote threshold: House 143–0 and Senate 31–0. The actual effective date is June 20, 2025.
Two amendments offered by Candy Noble were adopted May 10. Amendment H21 removed incorporation of the Business & Commerce Code’s personal-information definition and broadened the other-law disclosure exception: the earlier text excluded the Public Information Act, Chapter 552, while the final text says “another law of this state.” This does not make every disclosure mandatory; it recognizes disclosures another law requires or permits.
Amendment H22 removed the proposed prohibition on retaining unredacted information without consent and added the comptroller-license exception. Both amendments’ changes appear in the engrossed, Senate committee and final versions. All five versions and both complete amendments were compared; there is no separate Senate amendment or conference text indexed.
Sources: text versions; amendment index; H21; H22.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Occupational-license applicants may gain control over disclosures not otherwise authorized by law. Agencies must identify covered information, obtain consent where required and retain that consent. Requesters may encounter an additional consent requirement, but existing legal permissions and law-enforcement uses remain exceptions.
The May 22, 2025 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes implementation costs can be absorbed using existing resources. The April 22 introduced and April 25 committee notes reach the same conclusion. They give no dollar estimate or appropriation and do not guarantee that every agency has no implementation work.
Review boundary: all six final sections, history, five versions, both adopted amendments, all three fiscal notes and the previous Chapter 2062 and proposed cross-referenced definition were checked. This review does not determine whether a particular disclosure is required by another law, verify an agency’s consent process or promise that every personal record is confidential.
Source: May 22 fiscal note.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
