Bill Text: MA H315 | 2009-2010 | 186th General Court | Introduced
Bill Title: The privacy rights of certain customers of supermarketst
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-01-20 - Public Hearing date 5/12 at 10:00 AM in Hearing Room B2 [H315 Detail]
Download: Massachusetts-2009-H315-Introduced.html
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_______________
PRESENTED BY:
William M. Straus
_______________
To the
Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the passage of the accompanying bill:
An Act relative to the privacy rights of certain customers.
_______________
PETITION OF:
|
Name: |
District/Address: |
|
William M. Straus |
10th Bristol |
[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS
SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 327 OF 2007-2008.]
The Commonwealth of
Massachusetts
_______________
In the Year Two Thousand and Nine
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An Act relative to the privacy rights of certain customers.
Be
it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. The General Laws are hereby amended by inserting after chapter 93G, as appearing in the 2000 Official Edition, the following chapter:—
CHAPTER 93H.
SUPERMARKET PRIVACY.
Section 1. Whenever used in this chapter, the following terms, unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise, shall have the following meanings:
“Affiliates,” any company whose involvement with the consumer is necessary to
effect, administer or enforce such transaction.
“Company”,
with respect to a market grocer, any person, or legal representative thereof,
to whom a market grocer provides a product or service, where product or service
is to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes.
“Consumer”,
an individual who requests or obtains from a market grocer products or
services, including but not limited to groceries which are used primarily for
personal, family, or household purposes, and also means the legal
representative of that individual.
“Supermarket”, any retail company that participates in the sale of perishable
food items and has at least 300 employees and 4 retail locations in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
“Nonaffiliated third Party”, means any entity that is not an affiliate of, or
related by common ownership or affiliated by corporate control with or bound in
an aforementioned contract with, the market grocer, but does not include a
joint employee of the institution.
“Nonpublic
personal information”, means personally identifiable information either
provided by a consumer to a market grocer in connection with any transaction
with the consumer or service performed for the consumer or otherwise obtained
by the market grocer. “Nonpublic personal information” does not include
personally identifiable information in any list, description, or other grouping
of consumers that is publicly available if the list, description, or other
grouping of consumers was derived without using personally identifiable
information that is not publicly available.
“Unrelated
Use,” when used with respect to information collected by a financial
institution in connection with any transaction with a consumer in any financial
product or financial service, means any use other than (1) a use necessary to
effect, administer or enforce such transaction, or (2) a use to provide
directly or indirectly other banking products as defined in 15 USC Sec. 78c,
insurance products as defined by 15 USC Sec. 6712, or securities products as
defined by 15 USC Sec. 766 to said consumer.
Section 2. A
supermarket shall, at the time of establishing enrollment of a consumer in any
membership group or entity constituted for the purpose of providing retail
price discounts for consumer, provide a clear and conspicuous disclosure to the
consumer in writing of such supermarket’s policies and practices with respect
to:
1)
disclosing nonpublic personal information to nonaffiliated third parties,
including the categories of information that may be disclosed;
2) disclosing
nonpublic personal information of persons who have ceased to be members of such
groups of the supermarket; and
3)
protecting the nonpublic personal information of consumers
The required
disclosure must include
A) An option
for the consumer to allow the supermarket to share nonpublic personal
information with nonaffiliated third parties. If the consumer does not provide
written consent for the sharing of nonpublic personal information, the
supermarket must assume the consumer does not want their information shared
with third parties.
Section 3. A
consumer who terminates membership in such supermarket discount groups shall be
deemed to have withdrawn any consent to disclosure given pursuant to this
chapter.
Section 4.
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to the disclosure by a
supermarket with respect to nonpublic personal information whenever such
disclosure is necessary to:
(1) Protect
the confidentiality or security of the supermarket’s records pertaining to the
consumer, the service or product requested or authorized, or the transaction
therein;
(2) Protect
the consumer against actual or potential fraud, unauthorized transactions,
claims or other liability;
(3)
Resolution of consumer dispute inquiries;
(4) Comply
with a properly authorized civil, criminal or regulatory investigation,
subpoena or summons by federal, state or local authorities, or to respond to
judicial process or government regulatory authorities having jurisdiction over
the supermarkets.
Section 5.
Any violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed to be an unfair
and deceptive trade practice, as defined in section 2 of chapter 93A. The
Executive Office of Consumer Affairs is authorized to promulgate rules or
regulations necessary to enforce the provisions of this chapter. The office of
the Massachusetts Attorney General may seek enforcement against violations of
this chapter in the courts of the Commonwealth seeking appropriate declaratory
and/or injunctive relief.
