Lawmakers push bills protecting personal info amid pandemic
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Two Mid-Hudson Valley state lawmakers — one Republican, the other a Democrat — are pushing measures to protect personal information during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, and state Sen. Sue Serino, R-Hyde Park, are pressing for separate bills focused on personal information related to contact tracing and unemployment claims.
Cahill, who represents the 103rd Assembly District, has co-sponsored legislation focused on contact tracing.
The contact tracing privacy measure was introduced after a May hearing regarding COVID-19 conducted by the Assembly Health Committee, part of an ongoing series of hearings the Assembly has been conducting regarding various aspects of the pandemic, Cahill said.
“The main purposes are twofold: to continue the deep tradition of New York State in protecting private health care information and to encourage participation in data gathering to help stem the flow of this pervasive virus,” Cahill said in an email. “When people are aware that their information will be ‘de-identified’ (a term from the legislation) before being used, they may be more inclined to cooperate with those seeking to gather date to inform health officials about the spread of the virus and, in the process, help determine ways to minimize the negative impacts.”
Cahill said the bill does contain certain prohibitions.
“By prohibiting the use of the information by law enforcement, immigration officials and other non-health related government entities, those subject to the law can prioritize public and individual health concerns,” Cahill wrote.
The May hearing was specifically addressing the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities.
“Concern over the datagathering technique were raised, including potential misuse by immigration authorities as a tool of enforcement of questionable policies that have targeted the new immigrant community,” Cahill said. “As long as our history is of protecting private information in New York, so is our history of gathering data concerning communicable diseases, including contact-tracing. That said, this approach being deployed on the scale planned in the current situation is unprecedented.”
It is estimated that there will be as many as 30 tracers for every 100,000 people or up to 6,000 individuals engaged in collecting private information about the associations and activities of every day New Yorkers, Cahill said.
“The information collected can be essential to protecting the health of members of the public, but the risk of misuse or abuse of the information obtained is also high,” Cahill said. “While these unprecedented times may call for extraordinary measures, so too should be our efforts to continue to protect the privacy of every person in our state.”
Serino, who represents the 41st Senate District, is pushing a bill that “aims to protect New Yorkers whose personal information was accidentally leaked by the Department of Labor after applying for unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 crisis,” a posting on Serino’s webpage says.
In late April, the Department of Labor mailed sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers, to the wrong people, Serino’s office said.
The bill is also sponsored by Assemblyman Colin Schmitt, R-New
Windsor, in that chamber.
“Impacted New Yorkers have been offered one year of free credit monitoring, but Assemblyman Schmitt and Senator Serino are looking to extend this protection to a full five years for residents impacted by the compromise of their most sensitive personal information,” Serino’s posting says.
The senator said the measure will be an improvement. “By extending the period covered by free credit monitoring for affected New Yorkers, those impacted will be better protected from the dangers that come with identity theft and breaches like this one,” Serino said in a statement. “Since the state caused this leak, we must do all we can to protect people in their time of need.”
“The information collected can be essential to protecting the health of members of the public, but the risk of misuse or abuse of theinformation obtained is also high.” — Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston