Title: An act relating to the collection of personally identifiable information by state agencies.

Brief Description: Monitoring personal information collected by state agencies.

Sponsors: Senators Kline, Kohl-Welles, Hargrove, Rockefeller, Shin and Benton.

Brief History:

Committee Activity: Government Operations & Elections: 1/31/06, 2/2/06 [DP].

Passed Senate: 2/8/06, 47-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS & ELECTIONS

Majority Report: Do pass.Signed by Senators Kastama, Chair; Berkey, Vice Chair; Roach, Ranking Minority Member; Benton, Fairley, Haugen, Kline, McCaslin, Mulliken and Pridemore.

Staff: Genevieve Pisarski (786-7488)

Background: Under the state's public disclosure laws, various categories of public records are exempt from public inspection and copying. Among these are records that contain personal information about public employees and their dependents, such as addresses, telephone numbers, and social security numbers.

Summary of Bill: The Department of Information Systems will create and maintain a registry of state agency databases that contain personally identifiable information, meaning information that could be tied to a particular individual. For each database, the registry will have to describe the purpose, the kind of information, the number of records, the statutory authority, how the information is collected and updated, the retention schedule, and any other databases that are merged or matched with it. The registry can omit databases relating only to public officials.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Requested on January 30, 2006.

Committee/Commission/Task Force Created: No.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: The purpose of this bill is to have a better handle on where this personal information is located, what kind of information it is, and how it is used, should there ever be a need to examine why or whether it should be kept.

Testimony Against: None.

Who Testified: PRO: Sen. Kline, Prime Sponsor.