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AI Laws in Ashburn, Virginia
As of 2026-08-12, AI Laws USA tracks 37 AI rules that apply to people and businesses in Ashburn, Virginia: 10+ federal protections, 22 Virginia state-level rules, and 5 local Ashburn/county ordinances. Coverage is strongest on data-center siting and energy, consumer protection, government use of AI, and automated decision-making. 21 of these rules are already in effect. Each entry below links to its official source.
Ashburn local AI rules (and Loudoun County)
5 local AI rules specific to Ashburn, Virginia or Loudoun County.
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In effect Limited protection
Loudoun County VA Public Schools
Ashburn, VA · Effective 2025-08-26 · Loudoun County VA Public Schools — AI Use Guidelines (2025-08-26)
Largest NoVA-suburban district adopted guidelines: vetted enterprise AI tools, parental opt-in for student AI account creation grades 6-8, AI cannot be sole basis for placement or discipline, AI literacy integrated into K-12 ITRT curriculum.
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In effect Stronger protection
Loudoun County VA Data Center Standards & Locations Phase 1
Loudoun County, VA · Effective 2025-03-18 · CPAM-2024-0001 + ZOAM-2024-0001, adopted 2025-03-18 (vote 7-2)
On March 18, 2025, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved the Phase 1 Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM-2024-0001) and Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM-2024-0001) by a 7-2 vote (Umstattd and Kershner dissenting). The amendments designate data centers a conditional use in the 2019 General Plan and require Special Exception (SPEX) approval for data center uses in the Industrial Park (IP), General Industry (GI), and Mineral Resources-Heavy Industry (MR-HI) zoning districts, eliminating by-right approval. The Board also approved a grandfathering resolution exempting applications filed before Feb. 12, 2025 that are >500 ft from residential and are diligently pursued.
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Proposed / pending Moderate protection
Loudoun County VA Data Center Standards & Locations Phase 2 Project Plan
Loudoun County, VA · Effective 2025-09-16 · Phase 2 Project Plan approved 2025-09-16
On September 16, 2025, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved the Phase 2 Project Plan for Data Center Standards & Locations, directing staff to draft additional Comprehensive Plan changes and use-specific zoning standards covering substation siting, energy/emissions, and noise. The substantive Phase 2 ZOAM (referenced as ZOAM-2025-0001) was not yet adopted as of June 2026.
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In effect Moderate protection
Loudoun County Sheriff's Office ALPR General Order 401.8
Loudoun County, VA · Effective 2025-03-24 · LCSO General Order 401
Loudoun County Sheriff's Office General Order 401.8 (Operations) governs Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR / Flock Safety) use by LCSO personnel. Last reviewed March 24, 2025 with the next review scheduled for November 1, 2027. The order requires data-sharing among other agencies to be governed by MOUs, states that ALPR data is owned by LCSO and is not sold to third parties, and is updated to reflect VA legislative changes effective July 1, 2025.
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Proposed / pending Limited protection
Loudoun County VA considering data center moratorium
Loudoun County, VA · Loudoun County, VA Board of Supervisors 6-1 vote (July 30, 2026) directing staff to prepare moratorium options; staff report due September 15, 2026
On July 30, 2026, the Loudoun County, Virginia Board of Supervisors voted 6-1 to direct county staff to prepare options for a temporary moratorium on new data center applications. If enacted, the pause would halt all new data center applications, site plans, and substation permit approvals while the county completes its Phase 2 Zoning Ordinance Amendment. The board also rejected a proposed 780 MW Active Infrastructure Campus (approximately 3.25 million square feet) at the same meeting. County Attorney Leo Rogers cautioned that a blanket moratorium likely lacks legal standing under Virginia law, which requires each rezoning or special exception to be considered individually. Supervisor Briskman stated 'The community has basically been begging us to do something about the unchecked growth of data centers.' Staff are directed to present options by the September 15, 2026 board meeting.
Virginia-level AI rules most relevant to Ashburn
22 Virginia state rules apply to residents and businesses in Ashburn. Showing the 8 most relevant to Ashburn's local picture; 14 more are on the Virginia jurisdiction page.
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In effect Moderate protection
VA SCC Data Center Rate Case
VA · Effective 2024-11-13 · Va. SCC Case No. PUR-2024-00144
Virginia's State Corporation Commission opened a formal investigation into how data center load growth — driven by AI compute demand — should be allocated across electricity rate classes, to keep residential customers from subsidizing AI data centers. Includes minimum-billing demands and special tariffs.
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Enacted (not yet in effect) Limited protection
Virginia FY2026-2028 Biennial Budget: Data Center Electricit
Virginia · Enacted 2026-06-30 · Virginia FY2026-2028 Biennial Budget: Data Center Electricity Tax, Water Cooling and Noise Provisions
Virginia's new two-year budget imposes a first-of-its-kind $0.011/kWh tax on data center electricity consumption effective July 1, 2026, and directs regulators to establish water-cooling scarcity rules and first-ever noise standards for data centers.
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In effect Limited protection
New GS-5 Data Center / Large Load Rate Class, DEV 2025 Bienn
Virginia State Corporation Commission (Dominion Energy Virginia) · Effective 2025-11-25 · New GS-5 Data Center / Large Load Rate Class, DEV 2025 Biennial Review (Case PUR-2025-00058)
The Virginia SCC created a new GS-5 rate class (effective Jan 1, 2027) for customers exceeding 25 MW with load factor above 75%, requiring 14-year contracts and minimum demand charges of 85% for transmission/distribution and 60% for generation so data centers pay their own costs.
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In effect Limited protection
Virginia VCDPA (opt out of profiling, $7,500/violation)
Virginia · Effective 2023-01-01 · Va. Code 59.1-575 to 59.1-585 (esp. 59.1-577, 59.1-580, 59.1-584); HB 2307 / SB 1392 (2021)
Virginia's comprehensive privacy law gives consumers the right to opt out of 'profiling' used to make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects, such as automated decisions affecting credit, housing, employment, or essential services. Businesses must obtain heightened consent before processing the data of a known child (via federal COPPA) and must conduct documented data protection assessments for higher-risk processing, including certain profiling. The Attorney General enforces the law and may seek up to $7,500 per violation; there is no private right of action.
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In effect Limited protection
VA Data Center Cost-Allocation Law
Virginia · Effective 2026-07-01 · Va. SB 253 (2026) (Sen. Lucas); companion Va. HB 1393 (2026); related Va. HB 507 (2026, generator air permits). Signed with gubernatorial amendments, May 2026; effective July 1, 2026.
Virginia's 2026 data-center cost-allocation law (SB 253, by Sen. L. Louise Lucas, with companion HB 1393). As amended by Gov. Spanberger and signed in May 2026, it lets the State Corporation Commission (SCC) shift certain electricity costs — PJM capacity-auction purchases and the financing of distribution lines and substations that mainly serve data centers — onto data centers and other very large (25 MW+) customers in their rate class, instead of spreading them across residential bills. The governor's amendments made the cost-shift SCC-discretionary rather than automatic, so the real-world savings depend on future SCC rate cases. The bill also extends Dominion and Appalachian Power low-income weatherization programs.
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In effect Limited protection
VA Data Center Tax Exemption
Virginia · Effective 2010-07-01 · Va. Code § 58.1-609.3(18)
Virginia exempts qualifying data centers from sales and use tax on servers and related equipment — a key driver of the world's largest data center market in Northern Virginia. Operators must meet capital investment and job-creation thresholds; the exemption runs through mid-2035 with extensions for very large investments.
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Vetoed Proposed or pending
VA Data Center Siting Bill (Vetoed)
Virginia · Va. HB 1601 (2025) (vetoed May 2, 2025)
A bipartisan 2025 bill that would have required data center developers to perform site assessments covering water, noise, and historic resources before local land-use approval, including noise studies for homes and schools within 500 feet. Governor Youngkin vetoed it on May 2, 2025.
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In effect Moderate protection
VA PDD Act (2017 — first)
Virginia · Effective 2017-07-01 · Va. Code §§ 46.2-100, 46.2-908.1:1
Virginia was the first U.S. state to legalize sidewalk delivery robots. PDDs may operate on sidewalks and crosswalks (10 mph cap, 50 lb cargo limit), must carry $100,000 liability insurance and a visible operator ID, and localities may further regulate them. Starship Technologies' deployment at George Mason in 2019 traces back to this law.
Federal AI rules that apply in Ashburn, Virginia
These federal protections apply everywhere in the United States, including Ashburn, Virginia. Showing the 10 strongest and most recent.
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In effect Stronger protection
Bartz v. Anthropic
N.D. Cal. · Effective 2025-09-05 · Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal.)
Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic over its use of pirated-book datasets to train Claude. In June 2025 Judge William Alsup ruled that training on lawfully purchased books was fair use. The piracy claims (LibGen ingestion) proceeded toward settlement; in September 2025 Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion class settlement covering ~500,000 works. Judge Alsup granted preliminary approval September 25, 2025 and final approval July 20, 2026. The appeal period runs through August 19, 2026; class members will not receive payments until at least end of 2026.
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In effect Stronger protection
Benavides v. Tesla (Autopilot)
S.D. Fla. · Effective 2025-08-01 · Benavides v. Tesla, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-21940 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 1, 2025)
A Florida federal jury found Tesla 33% liable in August 2025 for the 2019 death of Naibel Benavides Leon, in a crash involving Autopilot. The jury awarded $243M ($129M compensatory + $200M punitive); in February 2026 the court denied Tesla's post-trial motions and upheld the verdict in full — the first Autopilot wrongful-death verdict against Tesla.
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In effect Stronger protection
COPPA + 2025 Rule (childrens data)
United States · Effective 2025-06-23 · 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506; 16 C.F.R. Part 312
COPPA requires online services aimed at children under 13 to get verifiable parental consent before collecting kids' personal data. The 2025 rule update — fully in effect since April 22, 2026 — adds biometric identifiers (like face templates and voiceprints, which matter for AI tools), requires separate parental consent before sharing children's data for targeted advertising, and tightens data retention limits.
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In effect Stronger protection
TAKE IT DOWN Act
United States · Effective 2025-05-19 · Pub. L. No. 119-12 (S. 146)
Makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish intimate images of someone without consent, including AI-generated deepfakes. Social media and similar platforms must give victims a way to request removal and must take the content (and known copies) down within 48 hours. The platform removal requirement became enforceable May 19, 2026, and the FTC has already begun enforcement.
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Blocked / in litigation Stronger protection
NetChoice v. Yost (Ohio)
S.D. Ohio · Effective 2025-04-16 · NetChoice, LLC v. Yost, No. 2:24-cv-00047 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 16, 2025)
Ohio's Social Media Parental Notification Act — requiring parental consent for minors' social-media use, including algorithmic feeds — was preliminarily enjoined on February 12, 2024, then permanently enjoined on April 16, 2025 when the district court granted summary judgment for NetChoice. The state appealed to the Sixth Circuit, which vacated the district court's injunction in 2026.
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In effect Stronger protection
Thaler v. Perlmutter (Copyright)
D.C. Cir. · Effective 2025-03-18 · Thaler v. Perlmutter, 130 F.4th 1039 (D.C. Cir. 2025)
The companion copyright case: Stephen Thaler sought to register a copyright with 'Creativity Machine' (his AI) as the author. The D.C. Circuit affirmed in March 2025 that the Copyright Act's human-authorship requirement is dispositive as a matter of statutory law. AI cannot be a copyright author under U.S. law.
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In effect Stronger protection
Thomson Reuters v. Ross
D. Del. · Effective 2025-02-11 · Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH v. Ross Intelligence, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-00613 (D. Del. Feb. 11, 2025)
Thomson Reuters sued legal-research startup Ross Intelligence in 2020 for copying Westlaw headnotes to train a competing AI legal-research tool. In February 2025, Judge Stephanos Bibas (sitting by designation) granted summary judgment to Thomson Reuters on direct copyright infringement and rejected Ross's fair-use defense — the first definitive U.S. ruling on AI-training fair use. No jury trial occurred: a 2023 opinion had denied summary judgment and pointed toward trial, but the court invited renewed briefing and reversed course in the 2025 ruling.
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In effect Stronger protection
Louis v. SafeRent
D. Mass. · Effective 2024-11-20 · Louis v. SafeRent Solutions, LLC, No. 1:22-cv-10800 (D. Mass.)
SafeRent agreed in November 2024 to a $2.275M settlement and a five-year ban on using its 'SafeRent Score' for housing-voucher applicants, after a class action alleged its AI tenant-screening tool systematically denied housing to Black and Hispanic Section 8 voucher holders. The first major AI tenant-screening Fair Housing Act settlement.
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In effect Stronger protection
FTC Impersonation Rule (AI)
United States · Effective 2024-04-01 · 16 C.F.R. Part 461; 89 Fed. Reg. 15017
The FTC's Impersonation Rule lets the agency directly sue scammers who pretend to be a government agency or a real business — including those who use AI-cloned voices or generated images to do so. Civil penalties can reach $53,088 per violation. The FTC also issued a supplemental notice in February 2024 proposing to extend the rule to all individual impersonation.
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In effect Stronger protection
TCPA (AI voice calls)
United States · Effective 2024-02-08 · 47 U.S.C. § 227; FCC 24-17
Robocalls using AI-cloned or AI-generated voices are treated like other 'artificial voice' calls: callers need your prior express consent, must identify themselves, and must offer opt-outs for telemarketing. You can personally sue violators for $500 to $1,500 per illegal call.
Frequently asked questions about AI laws in Ashburn, Virginia
Are there AI laws in Ashburn, Virginia?
What federal AI rules apply in Ashburn?
Does Virginia have an AI privacy law?
Are deepfakes illegal in Virginia?
Can my employer use AI to screen me for jobs in Ashburn?
How do I report an AI law violation in Ashburn?
Are facial recognition cameras allowed in Ashburn?
Is Ashburn regulated by Virginia's consumer privacy act?
Have we missed an AI rule in Ashburn?
This page is generated from our open civic dataset. If you know of a Ashburn ordinance, county rule, or local enforcement action we should add, email feedback@ailawsusa.com or submit a correction. Every entry must include a verifiable source.