Telecommunications: customer right of privacy.

Existing federal law, as implemented by the Federal Communications Commission, authorizes telecommunications carriers to use customer proprietary network information, as defined, and other customer information for certain purposes, subject to specified restrictions and requirements. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law prohibits a provider of mobile telephony services, or any direct or indirect affiliate or agent of a provider, from including the dialing number or a subscriber in a directory or selling the contents of a directory database without first obtaining the express content of the subscriber. This bill would prohibit a provider of mobile telephony services, or any direct or indirect affiliate or agent of the provider, except as provided, from disclosing a subscriber's historical, current, or prospective cell site location without first obtaining the express consent of the subscriber. The California Public Record Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. The act declares that access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state. The act exempts certain records from the disclosure requirement, including record of telephone numbers obtained by certain public agencies for specified purposes. This bill would exempt from the disclosure requirements of the act records of cell site locations obtained by certain public agencies for specified purposes. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.