AB 1168 (Jones) Heads to Governor's Desk

It's been a good week in the California Legislature for privacy protection advocates...and certainly for Assemblyman Dave Jones. As with AB 779 - Jones' data protection bill - AB 1168 has moved on to the Governor's desk. Jones website summarizes the bill as such:

AB 1168 - Protecting Social Security Numbers – Government agencies are releasing social security numbers, which can be used for identity theft. AB 1168 would protect consumers from identity theft by prohibiting local government agencies from releasing to the public records that contain more than the last four digits of a social security number. The bill would also require universities and colleges in California to truncate SSNs in their electronic student and employee records. Further, the bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to truncate SSNs on lien abstracts that it files as public documents. Finally, the bill would allow the Secretary of State’s office to stop certain financial documents from being filed with the office as public records if they contain any more than the last four digits of an SSN.

The bill had passed the Assembly on September 12th by a vote of 70 to 3, and was sent on to "enrollment" yesterday.

It appears the Assembly has a privacy protection and consumer rights champion of its own in Dave Jones, ala. Joe Simitian in the Senate. For more on AB 779, watch this "Assembly Report" video.