BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 179
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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 179 (Bocanegra and Levine)
          As Amended  April 24, 2013
          Majority vote 

           TRANSPORTATION      16-0        APPROPRIATIONS      16-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Lowenthal, Linder,        |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow,   |
          |     |Achadjian, Ammiano,       |     |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian  |
          |     |Blumenfield, Bonta,       |     |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
          |     |Buchanan, Daly, Frazier,  |     |Gomez, Hall, Ammiano,     |
          |     |Gatto, Holden, Logue,     |     |Linder, Pan, Quirk,       |
          |     |Morrell, Nazarian,        |     |Wagner, Weber             |
          |     |Patterson, Quirk-Silva    |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY  :  Expands privacy protections currently afforded to  
          electronic toll collection subscribers to include users of  
          electronic transit fare collection systems.  Specifically,  this  
          bill  :  

          1)Expands provisions of existing law related to ensuring the  
            privacy of electronic toll collection system subscribers to  
            include users of public transit systems that employ electronic  
            transit fare collections systems.  

          2)Specifically provides that, with respect to the prohibition  
            against sharing personally identifiable information, the  
            prohibition does not apply to the sharing of data between  
            transportation agencies for the sole purpose of providing  
            interoperability between the agencies.  

          3)Expands the definition of "transportation agency" to include  
            any transportation agency that administers an electronic  
            transit fare collection system and any transit operator  
            participating in that system.  

          4)Defines "electronic transit fare collection system" to mean a  
            system for issuing electronic transit passes that allow  
            passengers to use the transit systems of one or more transit  
            operators without having to pay individual fares.  









                                                                  AB 179
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           EXISTING LAW  :  
           
          1)Defines, for purposes of privacy provisions related to  
            electronic toll collections systems, "transportation agency"  
            as the Department of Transportation, 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.  

          2)Prohibits transportation agencies from selling or  
            disseminating personally identifiable information about  
            persons who subscribe to an electronic toll collection system,  
            with limited exceptions.  

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

          4)Authorizes transportation agencies to store specific  
            account-related information such as an account holder's name,  
            credit card number, vehicle information, and billing address;  
            all other information must be discarded within four years and  
            six months after the closure date of the billing cycle and  
            after the bill has been paid and all toll violations, if  
            applicable, have been resolved.  

          5)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, a person that their information  
            has been obtained from a transportation agency.  

          7)Allows peace officers conducting criminal or traffic collision  
            investigations to obtain personally identifiable information  
            of subscribers without a search warrant if the officer has  
            good cause to believe that a delay in obtaining the  
            information via a search warrant would cause an adverse  
            result, as defined.  









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          8)Allows transportation agencies to provide aggregated traveler  
            information derived from collective data that relates to a  
            group or category of subscribers, provided that personally  
            identifiable information has been removed.  

          9)Allows data to be shared among transportation agencies, in  
            order to comply with state inter-operability requirements for  
            electronic toll collection systems.  

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

          11)Provides, generally, that video recordings made by security  
            systems on public transit systems must be retained for one  
            year.  
           
          FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee, any additional costs to local transit agencies will  
          not be state-reimbursable, because the agencies have existing  
          authority to recover their costs through administrative fees.  

           COMMENTS  :  The author introduced this bill to protect the  
          privacy of public transportation patrons who use an electronic  
          transit pass by limiting the use of personal information that is  
          collected every time the pass is swiped, or tapped.  This bill's  
          introduction follows media accounts of privacy concerns related  
          to electronic fare collection systems.  

          One such system is the "Clipper" card system used in the San  
          Francisco Bay Area.  The Clipper card allows a transit user to  
          pay fares on multiple transit systems using one card.  Users can  
          add value to their card at any point or they can set up their  
          card to automatically reload whenever their pass expires or  
          their cash balance falls below $10.  Users of the Clipper card  
          are not required to register their card, however.  If a card is  
          unregistered, use of the system is linked to the card's serial  
          number only and the system has no personal information about the  
          cardholder.  

          The Clipper card privacy policy states that, for patrons who  
          choose to register their Clipper card, their personally  
          identifiable information may be disclosed to third-party service  
          providers (e.g., contractor personnel who operate and maintain  








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          the Clipper card service) for the purpose of operating and  
          maintaining the Clipper system; otherwise, personal information  
          is not to be disclosed to third parties, except as required by  
          law, ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction, or where the  
          express written consent of the cardholder has been obtained.  

          The Transit Access Pass system in the Los Angeles area and the  
          Compass card system in the San Diego area operate similar to the  
          Clipper card system and both have nearly identical privacy  
          policies.  

          Writing in support of this bill, the American Civil Liberties  
          Union (ACLU) argues, "Location privacy issues are of serious  
          concern to the ACLU.  [AB 179] extends the privacy protections  
          already in place to another transit system that creates and  
          stores digital records of people's movements.  Divorce lawyers  
          and law enforcement agencies are very interested in obtaining  
          records of individual's movements.  It's important to have clear  
          and consistent standards in place."  

          Opponents of this bill raise a number of concerns related to  
          safety, data retention, and interoperability.  For example, both  
          the Orange County Transportation Authority and the Riverside  
          Transit Agency are opposing the bill, in part, because they  
          believe the bill will hinder their ability to share video  
          surveillance information captured on its buses with police  
          without a search warrant or good cause.  Both agencies are  
          concerned that delaying the release of this information poses a  
          safety risk to the community by impeding successful apprehension  
          of criminals or successful recovery of missing persons.  

           Previous legislation  : AB 839 (Salinas), Chapter 564, Statutes of  
          2003, provides that videotapes or recordings made by a security  
          camera system operated as part of a public transit system must  
          be retained for one year.  

          SB 1268 (Simitian), Chapter 489, Statutes of 2010, imposed  
          privacy protections on electronic toll collection systems.  
           

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


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                                                                  AB 179
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