California Passes Privacy Bill A watered-down version of a bill establishing California as the first state in the nation to adopt European-style privacy protections for its residents won final approval from state lawmakers last month. The original version of the Personal Information and Privacy Protection Act (SB-129) required information gatherers to obtain a person’s written permission before providing any data about them to third parties. The new version applies that standard only to state-maintained public records. At press time, Gov. Gray Davis was expected to sign the bill, which also establishes an Office of Privacy Protection. “We think the bill is considerably improved from the original, which we thought would be very dangerous to commerce,” said Richard A. Barton, the Direct Marketing Association’s senior vice president for congressional matters.

SSNs Under Attack COMPANION LEGISLATION has been introduced in the House and Senate that would prohibit direct marketers from using Social Security numbers without a person’s permission. The Privacy and Identity Protection Act (H.R. 4857 and S-2876), introduced last month, would ban federal and state agencies from including a person’s Social Security number in lists that are rented or sold to third parties. The measure limits the use of these numbers to federal benefits and prohibits them from being used to verify a person’s identity in a broad spectrum of commercial activity. In addition, states would be banned from including these numbers on driver’s licenses or motor vehicle registrations, and the numbers would be prohibited from being printed on checks. Law enforcement, public health officials and researchers would have access to the numbers providing they do not “harass, target or publicly reveal information concerning any identifiable individuals.” Rules and regulations implementing the law are to be developed and enforced by both the Social Security Administration and the Federal Trade Commission. The bill was introduced by Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL) and Sen. James Bunning (R-KY).