BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 179|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 179
Author: Bocanegra (D), et al.
Amended: 6/19/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 10-0, 6/18/13
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Galgiani, Hueso, Lara, Liu,
Pavley, Roth, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cannella
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 6/25/13
AYES: Evans, Corbett, Jackson, Leno, Monning
NOES: Walters, Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-1, 5/24/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Electronic transit fare collection privacy
protections
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill extends privacy protections that state law
gives to toll bridge or toll road users to riders of transit
systems employing electronic fare collection systems.
ANALYSIS : Agencies operating toll bridge or toll road
facilities may employ an automatic vehicle identification system
to facilitate toll collection, such as the FasTrak transponder
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that is commonly used in California. These systems, generally
referred to as electronic toll collection (ETC) systems, allow
subscribers to prepay tolls thereby eliminating the need to stop
and pay at a toll plaza. Subscribers set up an account with the
tolling agency and provide personally identifiable information,
such as name, address, and bank account information. In
addition, many toll facilities use license plate reading
technology to enforce toll collection.
In 2010, the Legislature passed and Governor Schwarzenegger
signed into law SB 1268 (Simitian, Chapter 489) which
established a framework guiding how a transportation agency may
use the personal information of either an ETC subscriber or user
of a tolled facility that employs an ETC system. The privacy
protections enumerated in SB 1268 include:
Prohibiting a transportation agency from selling or
otherwise providing personally identifiable information of
any person that subscribes to or uses an ETC system.
Requiring a transportation agency to establish a privacy
policy and provide it to subscribers as well as post it on
their Web site.
Allowing a transportation agency to store personally
identifiable information for no more than four years and six
months for purposes of billing, account settlement, or
enforcement.
Allowing a transportation agency to provide personally
identifiable information to a law enforcement agency only
pursuant to a search warrant.
SB 1268 defines a transportation agency as the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans), the Bay Area Toll Authority, any
entity operating a toll bridge or toll highway within the state,
or any entity under contract with any of the above entities.
Finally, SB 1268 allows a transportation agency to impose an
administrative fee on its subscribers to cover the cost of the
privacy protections contained in the bill.
Transit operators in California have begun implementing
electronic transit fare collection (ETFC) systems, which are
systems utilizing reloadable payment cards instead of cash or
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tokens to pay transit fares. Subscribers often purchase the
cards and add value to them by providing personally identifiable
information such as their names, addresses, telephone numbers,
and bank account information.
This bill:
1. Applies existing privacy protection that state law gives to
a toll bridge or toll road user to riders of transit system
employing electronic fare collection systems.
2. Permits the sharing of data between transportation agencies,
with respect to ETFC systems, for the purpose of
interoperability between those agencies.
3. Permits a transportation agency to communicate, either
directly or through a contracted third-party vendor, to
subscribers of an ETC system or an ETFC system about products
and services offered by the agency, a business partner, or
the entity with which it contracts for the system, using
personally identifiable information limited to the
subscriber's name, address, and electronic mail address,
provided that the transportation agency has received the
subscriber's express written or oral consent to receive the
communications.
4. Re-defines "transportation agency" to mean the Caltrans, the
Bay Area Toll Authority, any entity operating a toll bridge,
toll lane, or toll highway within the state, any entity
administering an ETFC system and any transit operator
participating in that system, or any entity under contract
with any of the above entities.
5. Re-defines "electronic transit fare collection system" to
mean a system for issuing an electronic transit pass that
enables a transit passenger subscriber to use the transit
systems of one or more participating transit operators
without having to pay individual fares, where fares are
instead deducted from the subscriber's account as loaded onto
the electronic transit pass.
6. Re-defines "person" to mean any person who subscribes to an
ETC or ETFC system or any person who uses a toll bridge, toll
lane, or toll road that employs an ETC system.
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7. Re-defines "personally identifiable information" to mean any
information that identifies or describes a person including,
but not limited to, travel pattern data, address, telephone
number, email address, license plate number, photograph, bank
account information, or credit card number. However,
"personally identifiable information" would not include
photographic or video footage unless that information is used
for purposes of assessing a toll or fare.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/12/13)
American Civil Liberties Union of California
CALPIRG
Consumer Federation of California
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, by
including subscribers of ETFC systems, this bill addresses a
glaring hole in the privacy protections outlined in SB 1268.
The author's office contends that someone reviewing data from an
ETFC system can create a more robust profile of a subscriber's
everyday travels than from ETC systems. ETFC systems record
when and where a traveler boards public transportation, when and
where he/she disembarks, and how often he/she makes the trip.
This information could be very valuable to marketing companies,
and potentially dangerous in the wrong hands. This bill
addresses these concerns for transit riders the way existing law
resolves concerns for toll road users.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 70-1, 5/24/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan,
Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hagman,
Hall, Harkey, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue,
Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell,
Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan,
Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,
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Salas, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams,
Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Donnelly
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonta, Grove, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Skinner, Waldron, Wilk, Vacancy, Vacancy
JA:k 8/12/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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