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Two Online Privacy Initiatives Enter Circulation

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced the proponent of two new initiatives may begin collecting petition signatures for his measures.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials.

ONLINE PRIVACY. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires certain providers of Internet services or mobile applications to comply with a user’s instructions not to track user’s personal information, including contact information, government issued identification, financial information, online history, method of access, or location. Prohibits all providers from selling, sharing, or transferring user’s personal information after receiving instructions not to track. Prohibits providers serving public entities or private educational entities from using personal information for any purpose other than providing the service. Prohibits requiring user’s consent to track personal information as a condition of access to online service. Provides for fines and civil claims. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: (14-0006.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1655 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 14-0006.

The Attorney General's official title and summary for the second measure is as follows:

ONLINE PRIVACY. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires certain providers of Internet services or mobile applications to comply with a user’s instructions not to track user’s personal information, including contact information, government issued identification, financial information, online history, method of access, or location. Prohibits all providers from selling, sharing, or transferring user’s personal information after receiving instructions not to track. Prohibits requiring user’s consent to track personal information as a condition of access to online service. Provides for fines and civil claims. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased costs potentially reaching millions of dollars in some years to state and local governments primarily from additional or more costly civil actions and increased court workload. Increased penalty revenue potentially reaching tens of millions of dollars in some years to state and local governments resulting from new civil penalties authorized by the measure. (14-0007.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1656 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 14-0007.

The proponent for the measures, Jamie Court, must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters (five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election) for each measure in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for the measures, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by August 8, 2014. The proponent can be reached at (510) 346-6200.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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