A majority on the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee agreed Thursday that Senate File 34 would make it easier to determine what happens to a person’s online footprint after they die.
The bill would provide users the ability to direct services like Facebook to turn their accounts over to a fiduciary when they die. Or, if the person is already deceased and has not made such instructions clear in their will, data custodians like Facebook may still turn the user’s account information over to a fiduciary or representative of the estate through a court direction, provided they can produce a death certificate and a copy of the court order appointing the deceased’s personal representative.
Erin Taylor, representing the Internet Coalition, said SF 34 attempts to address an issue that has been of concern at the national level for some time now. She said the bill represented a “good marriage” between the interests of users and those of entities like Facebook.
SF 34 passed the committee by unanimous vote.
Next came SF 38, which requires state agencies to develop their own policies and guidelines for data collection, management, use and disposal. The bill also directs the state’s chief information officer to consult with individual cities, towns, counties and political subdivisions on developing their own guidelines on data collection, access and security.
SF 38 received pushback from two members of the committee, Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, and Sen. Curt Meier, R-LaGrange. Both were concerned that the bill would put too much pressure on very small municipalities that may not have the resources necessary to adopt any suggestions the state information officer comes up with.
“At this time, it might be hard to shove this mandate down (to) cities, towns and counties and tell them they have to do this,” Meier said.
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, a leading member of the Legislature’s Task Force on Digital Information Security, said SF 38 doesn’t require municipalities to do anything specific to data policies. Rather, he said, it merely requires them to consult with the state information officer, who will then come back to the task force to offer recommendations.
Hicks, however, said there was no way a county with a large number of people and a cemetery district with three employees would be able to share a single reasonable policy. Rothfuss said that’s exactly why the bill recommends the state information officer consult individually with municipalities, given that a “one-size-fits-all” policy would be unworkable.
Meier ultimately suggested an amendment stripping the portion of the bill that covers cities, towns and counties, reasoning that it made more sense to let state agencies get their houses in order before requiring municipalities to deal with data security. He then questioned the entire motive of pursuing data security, reasoning any sufficiently motivated and talented hacker could access whatever they wanted to.
“It’s a false sense of security any way you want to cut it,” he said.
“If someone wants to hack the Pentagon, they’ll hack the Pentagon.”
Hicks sided with Meier, but the amendment failed on a 3-2 vote. Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, also proposed an amendment giving the governor authority to decide when individual state agencies should have data policies in place. That passed unanimously.
The bill itself then passed out of committee by a vote of 3-2, with Hicks and Meier opposed.
Lastly, the committee voted 5-0 to approve Senate Joint Resolution 1, which proposes a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to privacy, while still allowing for access to public documents and government meetings.
Jim Angell, executive director of the Wyoming Press Association, said he had opposed a similar resolution last year because it lacked the second part guaranteeing access to public documents. He said similar amendments in states like Montana had been used to block media access to police reports, and he didn’t want to see the same happen here.
That said, Angell was comfortable with the new incarnation of SJ 1, and was willing to support it. If SJ 1 does pass the Legislature with two-thirds majorities in each chamber, it would then fall to the voters of the state, who would have to approve it by simple majority for it to become part of the Wyoming Constitution.
©2016 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
