What's happening
This bill prohibits utilities from sharing individual electric or gas consumption data with law enforcement without a court order or consumer consent.
Why it matters
Protects personal privacy by stopping law enforcement from accessing detailed electric or gas usage data without a judge's approval or explicit consumer consent. This means your utility records can’t be used for surveillance or investigations unless a court is involved or you agree.
Closes potential loopholes by prohibiting utilities and any third parties from sharing this data with any level of law enforcement—local, state, or federal—without proper legal process. This ensures there’s no workaround for agencies seeking this information.
Still allows utilities to use aggregated, anonymized consumption data for internal analysis and reporting as long as individual customer identities are fully removed. This means utilities can keep improving their services and efficiency without risking your personal data privacy.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Protect Utility Consumption Privacy
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to rules
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
9040
IN SENATE
October 9, 2020
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to prohibiting the release of consumption data
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 65 of the public service law is amended by adding a new subdivision 7-a to read as follows:
7-a. No utility corporation, municipality or local publicly owned electric or gas corporation shall share, disclose or otherwise make accessible a consumer's electrical or gas consumption data or allow a third party to share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible a consumer's electrical or gas consumption data, to any police officer, as defined by section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or private, local, state or federal law enforcement entity, without a judicial court-ordered subpoena, warrant, or the consumer's written, knowing consent. This subdivision shall not preclude a utility corporation, municipality or local publicly owned electric or gas corporation from using customer aggregate electrical consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program management if all personal identifying information has been removed regarding such individual consumer.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD17445-02-0
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to prohibiting the release of consumption data
Purpose of bill
To establish consumer consumption data privacy by prohibiting law enforcement entities access without a judicial court-ordered subpoena, warrant, or the consumers written, knowing consent.
Summary of provisions
This bill will prohibit a utility corporation, municipality or local publicly owned electric or gas corporation from sharing, disclosing, otherwise making accessible, or allow a third-party to share, disclose or otherwise make accessible a consumer's electrical or gas consumption data, to any law enforcement entity without a judicial court-ordered subpoena, warrant or the consumers written, knowing consent. This subdi- vision shall not preclude a utility corporation, municipality or local publicly owned electric or gas corporation from using customer aggregate electrical consumption data for analysis, reporting, or program manage- ment if all personal identifying information has been removed regarding such individual consumer.
Justification
Public Utility data, also known as smart meter data, is particularly sensitive as it can reveal where a person lives, the number of people in a household, and when an individuals are home. This bill intends to provide privacy protection by requiring law enforcement entities to produce a judicial court-ordered subpoena, warrant or the consumers written, knowing consent to access this data.
Prior legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications for-e and local governments
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.