BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 1268
                                                                  Page  1

          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 1268 (Simitian)
          As Amended  August 20, 2010
          Majority vote

           SENATE VOTE  :24-10  
           
           TRANSPORTATION      10-2        JUDICIARY           10-0        
           
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          |Ayes:|Bonnie Lowenthal,         |Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley,    |
          |     |Blumenfield, Buchanan,    |     |Evans, Hagman, Huffman,   |
          |     |Eng, Galgiani, Hayashi,   |     |Jones, Knight, Monning,   |
          |     |Niello, Norby,            |     |Saldana                   |
          |     |Portantino, Solorio       |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |Nays:|Bill Berryhill, Miller    |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           APPROPRIATIONS      16-0                                        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Fuentes, Conway,          |     |                          |
          |     |Bradford,                 |     |                          |
          |     |Charles Calderon, Coto,   |     |                          |
          |     |Davis,                    |     |                          |
          |     |De Leon, Gatto, Hall,     |     |                          |
          |     |Miller, Nielsen, Norby,   |     |                          |
          |     |Skinner, Solorio,         |     |                          |
          |     |Torlakson, Torrico        |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
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           SUMMARY  :  Prohibits transportation agencies from selling or  
            disseminating personal information of their subscribers, with  
            exceptions; imposes penalties for breaching this restriction.   
            Specifically,  this bill  : 

          1)Prohibits transportation agencies from selling or  
            disseminating personal information about persons who subscribe  
            to electronic toll or fare payment systems.  

          2)Requires transportation agencies that use electronic toll  
            collection systems to establish privacy policies and to  
            provide those policies to subscribers.  








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          3)Requires privacy policies to address, at a minimum, the  
            following:  

             a)   The type of information collected by the transportation  
               agency;

             b)   The types of third-party persons or entities with whom  
               the transportation agency may share personal information;

             c)   The process by which subscribers are informed of changes  
               in the privacy policy; 

             d)   The effective date of the privacy policy; and,

             e)   The process by which a subscriber may review their own  
               personal information.  

          4)Authorizes transportation agencies to store specific account  
            related information such as an account holder's name, credit  
            card number, and billing addresses; beginning July 1, 2011,  
            all other information must be discarded no later than four  
            years and six months after the closure date of a billing cycle  
            and the bill has been paid and all toll violations, if  
            applicable, have been resolved.  

          5)Beginning July 1, 2011, requires transportation agencies to  
            make every effort to purge data on closed accounts; in no case  
            may data be stored longer than four years and six months after  
            an account has been closed or terminated.  

          6)Allows transportation agencies to make personally identifiable  
            information available to law enforcement agencies, pursuant to  
            a search warrant; generally requires a law enforcement agency  
            to notify within five days someone that their information has  
            been obtained from the transportation agency.  

          7)Allows peace officers conducting criminal or traffic collision  
            investigations to obtain personally identifiable information  
            of subscribers if the officer has good cause to believe that a  
            delay in obtaining the information via a search warrant may  
            result in an adverse result, as defined.

          8)Allows transportation agencies to provide aggregated traveler  
            information that relates to a group or category of  








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            subscribers, provided that personally identifiable information  
            has been removed.  

          9)Allows the sharing of data among transportation agencies in  
            order to comply with state inter-operability requirements for  
            electronic toll collection systems.  

          10)Allows transportation agencies to communicate to their  
            subscribers exclusively about their products and services  
            through contracted third party vendors using the subscribers'  
            names and addresses, provided that the transportation agency,  
            for customer agreements entered into on or after January 1,  
            2011, has received the subscriber's express written consent to  
            receive the communication.  

          11)For purposes of these provisions, defines "transportation  
            agency" as the California Department of Transportation  
            (Caltrans), the Bay Area Toll Authority, any entity operating  
            a toll bridge, toll lane, or toll highway, or any entity  
            operating under contract with such an agency.  

          12)Defines other key terms.  

          13)Provides that a breach in the use of personal information may  
            result in an action to recover actual damages or $2,500,  
            whichever is greater, for each individual violation, in  
            addition to attorney's fees.  

          14)If a person's information has been knowingly sold or  
            otherwise provided three or more times, increases the penalty  
            to actual damages or $4,000, whichever is greater, in addition  
            to attorney's fees.  

          15)Stipulates that this bill's provisions do not preclude  
            compliance with a specific court-ordered settlement agreement.  
             

          16)Authorizes a transportation agency to impose an  
            administrative fee to cover costs associated with implementing  
            these privacy requirements.  

           EXISTING LAW  authorizes Caltrans, cities, counties, public  
          transit agencies, and special districts to assess tolls and  
          fares for the use of transportation facilities under their  
          respective jurisdictions.  








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           FISCAL EFFECT:   According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee, no impact to Caltrans, as such personal identifiable  
          information is kept by the local transportation agencies that  
          operate toll systems.  Any costs to local transportation  
          agencies can be covered through administrative fees authorized  
          in the bill.  

           COMMENTS:   According to the author, SB 1268 is intended to  
          protect the privacy of motorists in California by controlling  
          the use of personal information that is collected and stored by  
          electronic toll collection systems.  The author states that SB  
          1268 provides important privacy protections to drivers by:  1)  
          prohibiting a transportation agency that operates a toll  
          facility from releasing or selling personal identifying  
          information of subscribers to an automatic toll collecting  
          service; and, 2) establishing a data retention period for how  
          long agencies can retain personal information in their systems.   


          Supporters of this bill suggest that California has witnessed a  
          growing trend of attorneys, law enforcement agencies, and other  
          entities requesting and obtaining data on electronic toll  
          collection system users via a subpoena.  They support the  
          personal information protections provided for in SB 1268. 

          Transportation agencies generally support this bill's provisions  
          related to privacy protections for their toll customers.   
          Previously raised concerns, that the length of time personal  
          data can be stored should be consistent with the statue of  
          limitations for civil actions, appear to have been eliminated  
          with amendments taken to the bill that allow personal data to be  
          stored up to four and a half years.  


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 


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