By Mr. Marzilli of Arlington, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 271) of J. James Marzilli, Jr., relative to the scanning of drivers' licenses by businesses.  Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

 

J. James Marzilli, Jr.

 

 

 

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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 An Act protecting an individual's personal information.

 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

 

SECTION 1.  Section 1 of Chapter 66A of the General Laws as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition is hereby amended by inserting after the 10th paragraph the following paragraph:

“Scanning device,” a computerized system used by businesses to scan an individual’s driver’s licenses.

SECTION 2.  Chapter 66A of the General Laws as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition is hereby amended by inserting after Section 2 the following section:-

Section 2A.  A business shall comply with the following provisions when using a scanning device. 

A business shall only use a scanning device in the following ways:

(a) to scan an individual’s driver’s license to obtain the individual’s age;

(b) to scan an individual’s driver’s license to verify that the proper granting authority has lawfully issued the driver’s license;

(c) to store only the individual’s name and birth date, for a limited time, to prove that the business verified the individual’s age.

A business shall not use a scanning device for any reason other than the reasons laid out in this section.  Particularly, a business shall not use a scanning device for the following reasons:

(a) storing an individual’s personal data, obtained from an individual’s driver’s license, in order to create a database of information;

(b) storing an individual’s personal data, obtained from an individual’s driver’s license, to use for secondary purposes including, but not limited to, market research, advertisement, and profit made by selling the information to a third party.

Section 2B. An individual shall have the following rights:

(a) an individual who finds that a business stored the individual’s personal data gathered from scanning the individual’s driver’s license, other than for the reasons in the appropriate uses section, may bring a private right of action against that business;

(b) an individual may report violations of this Act to the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

     Section 2C. The Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

(a) shall develop appropriate criminal sanctions to be imposed on a business that violates the provisions of this Act;

(b) may initiate a criminal proceeding against a business that violates the provisions of this Act.