BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 206 (Gaines)
Version: April 7, 2015
Hearing Date: April 28, 2015
Fiscal: Yes
Urgency: No
TH
SUBJECT
Vehicle Information Systems
DESCRIPTION
This bill would prohibit the California Air Resources Board from
obtaining locational data or vehicle speed data from a vehicle's
computer system except for use in implementing California's
vehicular smog abatement program known as Smog Check.
BACKGROUND
In 1982, California implemented a vehicular smog abatement
program popularly known as Smog Check as part of the state's
plan to meet federal air quality standards. The Smog Check
program is administered by the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR)
within the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA). The Smog Check
program requires California-registered motor vehicles in certain
areas to have an emissions inspection every two years, and for
vehicles to receive an emissions test upon initial registration
or change of ownership. The Smog Check program requires both a
tailpipe gas emissions test and an inspection of the vehicle's
on-board diagnostic system known as OBD II.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is mandated under
existing law to work with and provide data and information to
DCA and BAR on several aspects of the Smog Check program,
including setting maximum emissions standards and developing
alternative test procedures for vehicles that have operational
problems with their OBD II systems. This bill would prohibit
CARB from obtaining locational or vehicle speed data from a
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vehicle's computer system, including its OBD II system, except
as necessary to comply with the Smog Check vehicular inspection
program.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
Existing law establishes the Motor Vehicle Inspection Program
and directs the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to take
those actions consistent with its statutory authority to ensure
that a reduction in vehicle emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon
monoxide, and oxides of nitrogen meets or exceeds the reductions
required by the amendments enacted to the Clean Air Act in 1990.
(Health & Saf. Code Sec. 44001.5.)
Existing law directs DCA, in cooperation with the California Air
Resources Board (CARB), to prescribe maximum emission standards
to be applied in inspecting motor vehicles under the Motor
Vehicle Inspection Program. Existing law directs the standards
to be set at a level reasonably achievable for each class and
model of motor vehicle when operating in a reasonably sound
mechanical condition, as specified. (Health & Saf. Code Sec.
440013.)
Existing law provides that a vehicular emissions test under this
Program shall be performed in accordance with procedures
prescribed by DCA and may require loaded mode dynamometer
testing, two-speed idle testing, testing utilizing a vehicle's
onboard diagnostic system, or other appropriate test procedures
as determined by DCA in consultation with CARB, as specified.
Existing law provides that DCA, in consultation with CARB, may
prescribe alternative test procedures that include loaded mode
dynamometer or two-speed idle testing for vehicles with onboard
diagnostic systems that DCA and CARB determine exhibit
operational problems. (Health & Saf. Code Sec. 440012.)
Existing law prohibits any person other than the registered
owner of a motor vehicle from downloading or otherwise
retrieving data from the vehicle's event data recorder, except
as specified. (Veh. Code Sec. 9951.)
This bill would prohibit CARB from obtaining locational data or
vehicle speed data from a vehicle information system.
This bill would state that the above prohibition does not apply
to the Motor Vehicle Inspection Program.
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This bill would define "vehicle information system" to mean a
computer or other device embedded or integrated into the
vehicle, other than an event recorder, that records, generates,
stores, or collects data that can by itself or with other
information be used to distinguish or individually identify the
registered owner, of the vehicle, the driver of the vehicle, or
the operation, use, or condition of the vehicle.
COMMENT
1.Stated need for the bill
The author writes:
In 2010, the Air Resource[s] Board and the Bureau of
Automotive Repair jointly sponsored AB 2289, which allowed the
use of OBDII when performing the biennial smog check in lieu
of tailpipe testing. Utilizing the vehicle's own emission
monitoring systems allow for more accurate readings as well as
cut[s] down on the consumer's wait time. While AB 2289 did
propel technological delivery into the 21st century, it also
opened the door for the possibility that state agencies may
view and retain more information than necessary when
performing smog check services. As technology moves forward,
OBDII, or future data gathering and transfer systems, could
retain more sensitive information, including the location and
speed of the vehicle.
. . .
This bill would disallow the California Air Resources Board,
from obtaining and retaining a vehicle's location or speed
data from a motor vehicle's information system. This bill
does not prohibit the Air Resource[s] Board from gathering
data necessary to carry out California's smog check program.
2.Fundamental Right to Privacy
California recognizes that the right to privacy is a fundamental
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right, and has enshrined that right along with other fundamental
rights in section 1, article I of the California Constitution.
The misuse of locational information taken from a vehicle's
on-board computer system threatens to undermine this fundamental
right, given the possibility that one could use the locational
history of a vehicle to extrapolate certain details about the
car's driver. As the U.S. Supreme Court recently noted,
government access to a vehicle's locational data could enable it
"to ascertain, more or less at will, [a driver's] political and
religious beliefs, sexual habits, and so on." (United States v.
Jones (2012) 132 S. Ct. 945, 956.) California residents may be
less willing to exercise their associational and expressive
freedoms if they know that their movements could potentially be
accessed by the government through a vehicle's on-board computer
system.
While this bill would ostensibly prevent such abuse, staff notes
that the bill stops well short of offering a comprehensive
solution to strengthening California's constitutional right to
privacy and preventing the potential misuse of vehicle generated
data, including locational information. Last year, SB 994
(Monning, 2014) would have restricted the use of vehicle data
without the consent of a vehicle's owner by both the public and
private sector. This bill limits its scope to only one agency
in the public sector, and that agency neither currently nor
plans in the future to collect locational data from vehicles.
(See California Air Resources Board, On-Board Diagnostic II (OBD
II) Systems - Fact Sheet/FAQs
[as of Apr.
22, 2015].)
Staff further notes that this bill explicitly excludes the Smog
Check program from the scope of its prohibitions. While this is
likely the primary means by which CARB would gain access to data
collected by a vehicle's on-board computer system, CARB may
administer other vehicle emissions reduction programs to which
this bill's prohibitions would apply.
Support : California Construction Trucking Association
Opposition : None Known
HISTORY
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Source : Author
Related Pending Legislation : AB 886 (Chau, 2015) would prohibit
a transportation service network provider, as defined, from
requesting or requiring personally identifiable data, including
locational data, of a passenger unless the information is used
for certain purposes, including establishing, maintaining, and
updating a customer's account. This bill would require a
transportation service network provider to provide an
accountholder with an opportunity to cancel or terminate an
account, and would require a transportation service network
provider to destroy or dispose of all personally identifiable
data in a secure manner when the information is no longer needed
for the purposes for which it was collected or when an
accountholder cancels or terminates his or her account. This
bill is pending in the Assembly Utilities and Commerce
Committee.
Prior Legislation :
SB 994 (Monning, 2014) would have required manufacturers of new
motor vehicles that record, generate, store, or collect vehicle
information to make certain disclosures to the registered owner
regarding the recordation, generation, storage, and collection
of that information. This bill also would have required the
manufacturer to provide the registered owner of the vehicle with
access to the vehicle information, and would have prohibited
vehicle information from being downloaded or otherwise retrieved
from the motor vehicle without the consent of the registered
owner, except as specified. This bill died in the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee.
AB 2289 (Eng, Ch. 258, Stats. 2010), among other things,
required the Department of Consumer Affairs to implement vehicle
emissions testing using a vehicle's on-board diagnostic system
in lieu of a dynamometer or idle test for specified vehicles.
This bill directed the Department, in consultation with the
California Air Resources Board, to determine the appropriate
emissions test procedures, and made other changes to the
Department's authority with respect to the Smog Check program,
including requirements relating to testing equipment and motor
vehicle emission data.
Prior Vote : Senate Environmental Quality Committee (Ayes 6,
Noes 1)
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