The California General Assembly is scheduled to vote anew tomorrow on a controversial financial privacy bill it previously rejected.
The bill, S-773, sponsored by Senator Jackie Speier (D-Santa Barbara) would require financial institutions in the state to obtain a customer’s permission before sharing their personal information with third parties.
Although the Senate approved Speier’s bill 25-13 last year, the Assembly voted 32-26 against it. Immediately afterwards, Assemblywoman Hannah Beth Jackson called for a new vote. But it was repeatedly delayed so lawmakers could deal with both the aftereffects of Sept. 11 and the state’s continuing energy crisis.
If a majority of the assembly members agree to reverse their vote, it could lead to final passage of the bill which Gov. Gray Davis has endorsed.
In his January state-of-the-state message to lawmakers, Davis called for legislation giving “consumers more power to control when and where sensitive personal information by be used or sold by financial institutions.”
But if they again reject S-773, Speier and Jackson, who believe there is wide public support for the idea, say they will join with consumer groups to get the matter placed before the voters in November.
Earlier in the year, Speier released the results of a survey commissioned by E-Loan, a Dublin, CA online lending company, that found 91 percent of Californian’s supported the bill.
At the time, Speier commented that “consumers are much less supporting of legislation containing lower privacy standards such as opt out where the onus is on the consumer to notify companies” about protecting the privacy of their personal financial information.
A number of local, regional and statewide consumer groups, including the California Public Interest Research Group, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, have called for the issue to be placed on November’s ballot, but no petitions have been filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
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