The California privacy circus continued last month when Gov. Gray Davis signed several pieces of legislation into law.
He also sent a letter to the two top Senators on the Senate Banking Committee, urging them not to water down his state’s financial privacy and identity theft protections.
In Sacramento, Davis signed:
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SB 186, which contains penalties of up to $1 million per unsolicited e-mail.
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AB 763, which prohibits mailers from sending out any document that contains a social security number if the number is visible without the envelope being opened.
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SB 27, which allows consumers to learn how personal information being held by non-financial institutions is being used, and urges non-financial businesses to provide consumers means to opt out of having their information shared with third parties.
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SB 602, which helps consumer provides a variety of remedies for identity theft, including strengthening law enforcement investigative tools, capping fees at $10 if a consumer wants to freeze his credit file, and prohibiting bars, car dealers and other businesses from collecting information for marketing purposes by swiping driver’s licenses.
Davis also signed SB 684, which helps consumers who have had their identities stolen obtain documents from companies that opened fraudulent accounts to thieves, and SB 752, which assists victims of identity theft to clear their name through fingerprint comparison of the thief and victim.
Meanwhile, Davis wrote to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and ranking member Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD).
He asked the committee not to pre-empt the provisions of his state’s recently passed financial privacy bill and to treat the California laws as model legislation for the rest of the country.
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