Lawmaker Acts to Protect Privacy

A state legislator has submitted several bills aimed at protecting the privacy of Texans -- and one of them may be a shot across the Federal bow HB-571 by Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp (R-Lampasas) would prohibit the inclusion of any electronically readable information on a driver's license. That means no magnetic strip containing information that can be read by a machine. The bill also bars requiring a thumbrpint or fingerprint to get a driver's license. This legislation, if passed, could run afoul of Federal regulations. In 1996 Congress authorized the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to require a machine readable Social Security number on state driver licenses. Hupp concedes her bill, if passed, is "certainly not going to make it easy for them, and I have absolutely no intention of making it easy for them." At some later time, she added, "we may very well come back and thwart their efforts on the Social Security number entirely."   Her present bill does not prohibit including the Social Security number typed on the driver license. Her concern with electronically readable information, she said, is that a person uses the driver's license for identification at a retail store, for example, and by reading the magnetic strip the store acquires a lot of personal information beyond what they need to cash a check or transact other business. Hupp is also the author of HB-1296 which forbids the sale of driver's license photographs by the state. The sale of the digitized photos has sparked controversy in other states. Image Data LLC, a New Hampshire firm, has contracted with South Carolina, Florida and Colorado to purchase the photos for the purpose of building a data base. The purpose of the data base, the company said, is to combat fraud in the marketplace but it was recently revealed the company is operating with a $1.46 million grant from the U.S. Secret Service. South Carolina had already sold 3.5 million of its citizens photos before attempting to get out of the contract. Image Data has sued the attorney-general of South Carolina for generating ad verse publicity about the program and its effect on personal privacy. Holders of a license to carry a concealed handgun gain some privacy under HB-1165, also by Hupp. Under current law, the Dept. of Public Safety is required to disclose to anyone who asks whether a specified individual is licensed to carry a concealed handgun. Hupp's bill restricts that information to criminal law enforcement agencies. Current law also requires that a license holder be notified when he is the subject of an inquiry and Hupp's bill does not disturb that provision. While current law requires the state to notify the sheriff whenever a license to carry a concealed handgun is issued to some one in his county, Hupp's bill, HB-1021, requires such notification only upon request of a local law enforcement agency.   Hupp is especially protective of the rights of gun owners. She was forced to watch her parents die when a crazed gunman drove his truck into a cafeteria and began shooing at patrons. Hupp had left her own gun in her car, in compliance with the law at the time, and was unable to defend her parents. She has also testified at congressional hearing in defense of Second Amendment rights. The privacy of handicapped drivers is protected under HB-570. Currently, the state may require that placards identifying the driver of a car as handicapped include the drivers license number of the holder. Hupp's bill specifies that the number be placed so that it is not readable from outside the vehicle.  Finally, in case anyone doesn't get her point, Hupp has introduced HJR 31, a proposed constitutional amendment providing that:  "The right of every individual to privacy is recognized and may not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest that may not be achieved in a less intrusive and more reasonable manner."   This amendment, if passed by the Legislature and approved by the voters, could take some of the steam out of attempts by the Legislature, the bureaucracy and, most conspicuously, public schools to violate the privacy of children and their parents.