STAND. COM. REP. NO. 99

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 429

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 429 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIFORM EMPLOYEE AND STUDENT ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to adopt uniform laws to protect the online accounts of employees and students from employers and educational institutions, respectively.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Commission to Promote Uniform Legislation, Graduate Student Organization, Internet Coalition, and two individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, University of Hawaii System, and American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that as more individuals subscribe to social media, privacy is a growing concern.  Employers increasingly ask current and prospective employees to grant the employer access to social media accounts.  Likewise, many educational institutions seek to examine the social media presence of current and prospective students.  The Uniform Employee and Student Online Privacy Protection Act, completed by the Uniform Law Commission in 2016, addresses employers' access to employees or prospective employees' social media and other online accounts accessed via username and password or other credentials of authentication as well as post-secondary educational institutions' access to students' or prospective students' similar online accounts.  Your Committees further find that although at least seventeen states have enacted laws regarding employee and student online privacy since 2012, Hawaii is the first state to introduce this uniform legislation.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  As recommended by the Department of the Attorney General, specifying that the Attorney General may bring a civil action in district court against an employer or educational institution in violation;

 

     (2)  Specifying that an employee or student may bring a civil action in district court against the individual's employer or educational institution for a violation;

 

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 429, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 429, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Higher Education,

 

________________________________

KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair