New Bill Will Protect Californians' Privacy Rights
Legislation Would Ban Tracking Devices in Public ID Documents
NOTE: This is a press release from the ACLU of Northern California. EFF is recirculating it for your information.
San Francisco, CA - The ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse support legislation introduced by Senator Joe Simitian that would prohibit identity documents issued by the state, including driver's licenses and library cards, from containing a contactless integrated circuit or other device that can broadcast personal information or enable that information to be scanned remotely.
"This is all about individual privacy, personal safety and financial security," said Senator Joe Simitian. "SB 682 ensures that state and local government will be part of the solution, not part of the problem."
The legislation was introduced days after a company in Sutter, California withdrew its pilot program from an elementary school amidst parents outcry who did not want their children tagged like "inventory." The school district introduced the mandatory use of Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFIDs) to track the students' movements. The students were required to wear the ID badges that included the device along with the student's name, photo, grade, school name, class year and the four-digit school ID number.
Jeffrey and Michele Tatro, parents of a Sutter elementary student who had to wear the mandatory RFID said: "We fully support this legislation that will protect families throughout California from having to go through what we did
Related Issues: Privacy
