Update - California's Proposed RFID Bill Vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger
Posted by Joe Addiego
As reported last Friday, September 29, 2006, Senate Bill No. 768, a/k/a the Identity Information Protection Action of 2006, which would have imposed new regulations on the use of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) cards issued by governmental bodies, was on the desk of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger awaiting signature to be passed into law.
On September 30, the Governor vetoed the bill, calling it “premature.” Several of the reasons given for the veto, including that the bill imposed expensive and burdensome restrictions that could quell the use of RFID technology, were those discussed in my prior blog post. Also, the veto states that the bill potentially conflicted with federal law.
Questions still remain as to whether restrictions like those proposed in the now-defunct (temporarily, at least) IIPA are necessary to protect the privacy of RFID card users. Expect similar laws to be proposed in the future.