Bill Text: NJ A2300 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires MVC to safeguard certain personal information and change method of generating driver's license and identification card numbers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-07 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee [A2300 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2022-A2300-Introduced.html

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ASSEMBLY, No. 2300

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

220th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 7, 2022

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  RONALD S. DANCER

District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires MVC to safeguard certain personal information and change method of generating driver's license and identification card numbers.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  

An Act safeguarding personal information stored by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    The Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Banking and Insurance, shall take actions to safeguard personal information stored by the commission, which shall include encrypting all data that is transmitted by the commission over the Internet and selecting a method of generating driver's license and identification card numbers that does not use a code by which personal information of an individual is able to be discerned.  The chief administrator shall review methods used in other states to generate driver's license and identification card numbers and may use a method that randomly generates a driver's license or identification card number.

 

     2.    This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill requires the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) to take actions to safeguard personal information stored by the MVC.  Specifically, the bill requires the chief administrator to encrypt all data that is transmitted by the commission over the Internet and to select a method of generating driver's license and identification card numbers that does not use a code by which personal information of an individual is able to be discerned.  The chief administrator is required to review methods used in other states and may ultimately determine to use random generation for driver's license and identification card numbers.

     New Jersey currently uses certain personal information to generate a person's driver's license number but many other states use random number generation to establish a person's driver's license number.  In recent years, the algorithm that determines driver's license numbers in states that generate driver's license numbers based on personal information has effectively been decoded.  As a result, states such as Washington and New Hampshire have switched the way driver's license numbers are generated to random number generation.