News Room: SB 1268: Electronic Toll Collection Privacy

The Consumer Federation of California (CFC), a statewide consumer rights organization, has recognized State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) for his 2010 voting record with a 100% score on its annual legislative scorecard. read more ...

KQED Radio reports on Sen. Joe Simitian’s FasTrak privacy bill, Senate Bill 1268

“Bridge commuters will no longer have a conflict between privacy and convenience beginning in January. The governor has signed a bill written by state Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) to restrict law enforcement access to FasTrak data. Except in emergencies, the law requires police to go to court for a search warrant to get their hands on pesonally identifiable information.”

read more ...

Legislation authored by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) to protect the privacy of drivers using the FasTrak payment system for toll bridges and roads has been signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. read more ...

Legislation authored by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) to protect the privacy of drivers using the FasTrak payment system for toll bridges and roads has passed the Legislature and is on its way to the Governor. “There’s just no reason for a government agency to track the movements of Californians, let alone maintain that information in a database forever and ever,” said Simitian. read more ...

Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain writes that the next governor needs to defend a state’s right to protect personal data.

In California, privacy is a fundamental right. This state has a constitutional amendment identifying privacy as inalienable. And for better or worse, legislators don’t see themselves as potted plants. Some actually care about state law. All that means the next governor will grapple with privacy or lack of it right here in Sacramento.

“States often have to lead to get attention at the federal level,” said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto,  the Legislature’s most prolific author of bills that seek to provide at least a thin veil of privacy. Simitian helped push a first-in-the-nation requirement that companies tell us when a security breach has spewed our personal information into other people’s hands. Because of a 2004 Simitian bill, California requires companies doing business in the state to post privacy policies on their websites. Lately, Simitian has sought to limit the misuse of radio frequency identification. Now Simitian is carrying legislation to protect people who use FasTrak to pay bridge tolls.

read more ...

Legislation authored by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) to protect the privacy of drivers using the FasTrak payment system for toll bridges and roads passed the State Senate last week. read more ...

Commuters on California toll roads and highways subscribe to a device kept in the car, allowing electronic toll collection as they pass through a toll booth. Payment is made by credit card. Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, wants to not only prevent this information from being sold, he is proposing that state agencies periodically dump all outdated data.

read more ...

To ensure that drivers’ rights are respected as traffic control and enforcement technologies evolve, State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) announced today that he has introduced a trio of transportation bills that protect motorists. read more ...

KUCI host Mari Frank interviews California State Senator Joe Simitian on his 2010 privacy legislation. read more ...