BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2263
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2263 (Baker) - As Amended April 11, 2016
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|Policy |Judiciary |Vote:|10 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
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| |Privacy and Consumer | |11 - 0 |
| |Protection | | |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill standardizes the confidentiality protections for Safe
at Home (SAH) program participants and requires the Secretary of
State (SOS) to provide SAH enrollees with information about how
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to protect their privacy on real property records.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Specifies that no person, business, or association shall
publicly post or display on the Internet the address of a
patient, employee, or volunteer of reproductive health center
who are SAH program participants, who has made a written
demand of that person, business, or association to not
disclose the home address of the program participant. A
similar requirement is already in effect for other
participants in the SAH program.
2)Specifies that no person, business, or association shall
knowingly post the home address of a patient, employee, or
volunteer of reproductive health center who are SAH program
participants, or of the program participant's residing spouse
or child, on the Internet, knowing that person is a program
participant and intending to cause imminent great bodily harm
or threatening to cause imminent great bodily harm to the
program participant or his or her residing spouse or child. A
similar requirement is already in effect for other
participants in the SAH program.
3)Requires the SOS to post on its website and provide SAH
enrollees information about how to protect personal privacy on
real property records, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Minor and absorbable costs for the SOS to provide the required
notifications. There are currently about 3,100 SAH participants.
COMMENTS:
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1)Purpose. This bill is intended to help protect the privacy and
personal safety of SAH program participants by bringing
uniformity to the confidentiality protections for certain SAH
participants, and by requiring the SOS to educate participants
about how they can protect their privacy on deeds and other
real property records.
According to the author, this bill was prompted by the
experience of a constituent who, despite being an SAH
participant and a victim of domestic violence, discovered that
her home address was nonetheless posted online and discovered
by her abuser. The constituent apparently learned from her
county assessor's office that the address may have been sold
to data brokers who purchase public records in bulk and then
post addresses and other personal information on the Internet.
2)Background. The California Public Records Act (CPRA) requires
state and local agencies to make public records available for
inspection and copying by members of the public, unless the
records are expressly exempted from disclosure by express
provisions of the CPRA or some other statute. One such
exemption includes participants in the SAH program, which is
intended to keep the home addresses of program participants
confidential. Though restricted to victims of domestic
violence when first established in 1998, the SAH program has
since expanded to include victims of stalking and sexual
assault; patients, employees, and volunteers of reproductive
health centers; and victims of elder and dependent adult
abuse.
The SAH program works by allowing program participants to use
a substitute, publicly disclosable address, in lieu of the
actual home address, whenever an address is required by a
public agency for an official purpose. SAH program
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participants receive a designated address from the SOS -
typically a post office box - and the participant may then
demand that a state or local agency use this substitute
address as the participant's official address. Any
correspondence from the agency to the participant is sent to
the designated address, and the SOS forwards it to the
participant's actual and confidential address.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081