THE SENATE

S.R. NO.

114

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

  

STATE OF HAWAII

  
   

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

requesting a study and draft legislation on protection of personal information relating to financial transactions.

 

WHEREAS, the federal Financial Service Modernization Act, commonly known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, became law in 1999, and reformed the laws that define and regulate the structure of the financial services industry; and

WHEREAS, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, while not an Internet-specific law, affects how businesses treat certain financial data in online (and offline) contexts; and

WHEREAS, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act greatly liberalized the manner in which financial institutions were permitted to share nonpublic personal information, and has in turn, highlighted the extent to which various entities buy, sell, and use nonpublic personal information; and

WHEREAS, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act does not provide a comprehensive framework by which citizens may control access to their nonpublic personal information, but instead explicitly permits the states to enact laws that provide for greater protection of the privacy of nonpublic personal information; and

WHEREAS, the citizens of Hawaii have indicated their concern with the issue of protection of personal information relating to financial transactions, and therefore should have control over the disclosure of their nonpublic personal information; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to conduct a study and prepare legislation concerning the protection of personal information relating to, or arising out of, financial transactions, and that this legislation shall accomplish the following objectives:

(1) Provide consumers with notice and the opportunity to protect and control the dissemination of their personal information by, and between, companies and their affiliates and non-affiliated third parties;

(2) Authorize and direct affected regulators to prepare regulations that will recognize the inviolability and confidentiality of a consumer's personal information and the legitimate needs of entities that lawfully use the information to engage in commerce at the behest of consumers or for their benefit;

(3) Assure that regulated entities will be treated in a manner so that, regardless of size, an individual business, holding company, or affiliate will not enjoy any greater advantage or suffer any burden that is greater than any other regulated entity;

(4) Be compatible with, and withstand any preemption by, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act; and

(5) Provide for civil remedies and administrative and civil penalties for a violation of the recommended legislation, including, but not limited to, attorneys' fees, costs, actual and compensatory damages, and exemplary damages; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

 

 
 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Protection of Personal Information