Prohibits the release of a consumer's electrical or gas consumption data to any police officer, or private, local, state or federal law enforcement entity without a judicial court-ordered subpoena, warrant or the consumer's written consent.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6966
SPONSOR: Cunningham TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to prohibiting the
release of consumption data
PURPOSE OF BILL:
To establish consumer consumption data privacy by prohibiting law
enforcement entities access without a judicial court-ordered subpoena,
warrant, or the consumers written, knowing consent.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill will prohibit a utility corporation, municipality or local
publicly owned electric or gas corporation from sharing, disclosing,
otherwise making accessible, or allow a third-party to share, disclose
or otherwise make accessible a consumer's electrical or gas consumption
data, to any law enforcement entity without a judicial court-ordered
subpoena, warrant or the consumers written, knowing consent. This subdi-
vision shall not preclude a utility corporation, municipality or local
publicly owned electric or gas corporation from using customer aggregate
electrical consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program manage-
ment if all personal identifying information has been removed regarding
such individual consumer.
JUSTIFICATION:
Public Utility data, also known as smart meter data, is particularly
sensitive as it can reveal where a person lives, the number of people in
a household, and when an individuals are home. This bill intends to
provide privacy protection by requiring law enforcement entities to
produce a judicial court-ordered subpoena, warrant or the consumers
written, knowing consent to access this data.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-22: S3019 - Committed to Rules
2019/20: 59040- Referred to Rules
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR-E AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6966
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 9, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CUNNINGHAM -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Energy
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to prohibiting the
release of consumption data
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 65 of the public service law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 7-a to read as follows:
3 7-a. No utility corporation, municipality or local publicly owned
4 electric or gas corporation shall share, disclose or otherwise make
5 accessible a consumer's electrical or gas consumption data or allow a
6 third party to share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible a consum-
7 er's electrical or gas consumption data, to any police officer, as
8 defined by section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or private,
9 local, state or federal law enforcement entity, without a judicial
10 court-ordered subpoena, warrant, or the consumer's written, knowing
11 consent. This subdivision shall not preclude a utility corporation,
12 municipality or local publicly owned electric or gas corporation from
13 using customer aggregate electrical consumption data for analysis,
14 reporting, or program management if all personal identifying information
15 has been removed regarding such individual consumer.
16 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01631-01-3
