It is getting busy over there in Tally.

There is now a privacy bill filed in both Florida’s House and Senate. Here is how they compare:
Item House- HB 571 Senate- SB 1530

                        ITEM                                                HB 571                                      SB1530                              
1. Govt. sale of personal info                         Banned                                 No info

2. Wall-penetrating radar                             Mostly banned                        Same

3. IP address privacy                                Protected                                   No info
4. Portable device privacy      Protected, penalty for govt. violation            Same
5. License plate readers        Mostly banned, data regulated                     No info

6. Student data                                       Protected                                     No info
                                         
7. Driver licenses            No chips or DNA/fingerprints (citizens)                No info

The House bill has notable differences from the Senate version. Of 7 areas of privacy that are mentioned in the House bill, only 2 are present in the Senate version.

Florida has a unique amendment in its Constitution in Article 1 Section 23 that is meant to protect privacy from governmental intrusion into our private lives. Florida’s Article 1 Section 12 is more detailed than the US Constitution’s 4th Amendment and protects our privacy as it relates to searches and seizures.

As technology has increased, so has the intrusion into our private lives. These technology advances inevitably lead to a loss of privacy. Consider for example license plate readers, which are cameras that automatically capture and store the license plate of every vehicle passing on a road. An argument can be made for detecting stolen vehicles or those registered to wanted or missing/endanger persons, but what of the remainder? What takes place is another database that can be used for tracking the movements of a certain vehicle. If people were perfect, there would be no problem, as this data would never be subject to abuse. We all know however perfection is not the case, notably in government operations.

Florida has databases legislatively created within the past 7 years for certain prescription drugs and scanned personal documents from driver license applications. These include all citizens, not just those suspected of any wrongdoing, as there is never any cause required for the government to obtain this data from citizens. The operating theory here is that citizens must prove their innocence, as “If you have done nothing wrong, just comply and there will be no problem”. Far too many Floridians fail to realize the danger with this mindset, and how it conflicts with the founding principles of our nation.

An aggressive privacy bill is needed in Florida to keep in check this invasive advance of technology.

It is our position the House bill is the substantially better of the two, and we believe citizens should demand any final bill contain the items mentioned in the House version.

We urge passage of the House bill as-is, and then a final version from both chambers that contains all of the protections.

The House version faces an uphill battle of 4 committees: Criminal Justice Subcommittee; Government Operations Subcommittee; Appropriations Committee; and Judiciary Committee
The Senate version has been assigned to the Criminal Justice; Judiciary; Fiscal Policy committees.

Action steps:

WHAT:

USE THE SUBJECT LINE:  

PRIVACY BILLS:  HB 571 AND SB 1530

COPY AND PASTE THIS TEXT:

  I urge that the bill be heard and passed as-is in the House and amended to the House version in the Senate. The issues contained in this bill are neither Democrat nor Republican, they are American. Please contact the below members by phone or email and ask they hear the bill. The main talking point here is that technology has outpaced our privacy, and the laws must catch up.

WHO:

HOUSE CRIMINAL JUSTICE:
Chair: Carlos Trujillo, (850) 717-5105, carlos.trujillo@myfloridahouse.gov
Dennis Baxley, (850) 717-5023, dennis.baxley@myfloridahouse.gov
Randolph Bracy, (850) 717-5045, randolph.bracy@myfloridahouse.gov
Jay Fant, (850) 717-5015, jay.fant@myfloridahouse.gov
Gayle Harrell, (850) 717-5083, gayle.harrell@myfloridahouse.gov
Dave Kerner, (850) 717-5087, dave.kerner@myfloridahouse.gov
Chris Latvala, (850) 717-5067, chris.latvala@myfloridahouse.gov
Ray Pilon, (850) 717-5072, ray.pilon@myfloridahouse.gov
Scott Plakon, (850) 717-5029, scott.plakon@myfloridahouse.gov
Sharon Prichett, (850) 717-5102, sharon.pritchett@myfloridahouse.gov
Ross Spano, (850) 717-5059, ross.spano@myfloridahouse.gov
Charles Van Zant, (850) 717-5019, charles.vanzant@myfloridahouse.gov
Clovis Watson, (850) 717-5020, clovis.watson@myfloridahouse.gov

JUST COPY THESE EMAILS AND USE THE VERBIAGE ABOVE (IN RED) FOR THE TEXT OF THE EMAIL.

E-Mail all with this list: (HOUSE)

carlos.trujillo@myfloridahouse.gov; dennis.baxley@myfloridahouse.gov; randolph.bracy@myfloridahouse.gov; jay.fant@myfloridahouse.gov; gayle.harrell@myfloridahouse.gov; dave.kerner@myfloridahouse.gov; chris.latvala@myfloridahouse.gov; ray.pilon@myfloridahouse.gov; scott.plakon@myfloridahouse.gov; sharon.pritchett@myfloridahouse.gov; ross.spano@myfloridahouse.gov; charles.vanzant@myfloridahouse.gov; clovis.watson@myfloridahouse.gov

THEN DO THE SAME FOR THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS BELOW:

SENATE CRIMINAL JUSTICE: 

Chair: Greg Evers, 850-487-5002 evers.greg.web@flsenate.gov
Rob Bradley, 850-487-5007 bradley.rob.web@flsenate.gov
Jeff Brandes, 850-487-5022 brandes.jeff.web@flsenate.gov (SENATE BILL SPONSOR)
Jeff Clemens, 850-487-5027 clemens.jeff.web@flsenate.gov
Audrey Gibson, 850-487-5009 gibson.audrey.web@flsenate.gov

JUST COPY THESE EMAILS AND USE THE VERBIAGE ABOVE (IN RED) FOR THE TEXT OF THE EMAIL.

E-Mail all with this list: (SENATE)

evers.greg.web@flsenate.gov; bradley.rob.web@flsenate.gov; brandes.jeff.web@flsenate.gov; clemens.jeff.web@flsenate.gov; gibson.audrey.web@flsenate.gov

CREDIT TO: Liberty First Network.
By Alexander Snitker on March 11, 2015 in Privacy

Thank you for your attention to this matter..

GOD BLESS YOU AND GOD BLESS OUR AMERICA