Fingerprinting in connection with business transactions
VA fingerprint return
Biometric
Virginia's only general biometric-type rule for businesses: unless the parties agree otherwise, anyone who requires fingerprints in a business transaction must return or destroy the prints and all copies, including electronic copies, within 21 days after the transaction ends. Virginia has no BIPA-style biometric privacy statute; biometric data used to identify a person is otherwise 'sensitive data' under the VCDPA.
- Where
- Virginia
- Citation
- Va. Code § 59.1-478 (Title 59.1, Chapter 42)
- Status
- In force
- In force since
- 1999-07-01
- Enforced by
- Not stated in the section
- People can sue
- No
- Penalties
- The section sets no specific penalty.
- Applies to
- Any person who requires another to furnish fingerprints in a business, commercial, or financial transaction, except prints on negotiable instruments and bank deposits and collections (Titles 8.3A and 8.4)
Practices it requires
- Return or destroy original fingerprint records and all copies, including electronic ones, within 21 days after the transaction is completed or terminated, unless the parties agree otherwise.Va. Code § 59.1-478
Sources
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: Effective dates inferred from Virginia's default July 1 effective date for regular-session acts; enacting bill pages not checked. History: 1999, c. 715. Whether a private right of action exists (for example under general law) was not determined; set to 'no' because the section creates none.
Research reference, not legal advice.