SENATE DOCKET, NO. 73        FILED ON: 1/10/2023

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1133

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

John C. Velis

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to establish the Massachusetts judicial security act.

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PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 73        FILED ON: 1/10/2023

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1133

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE SENATE, NO. 1151 OF 2021-2022.]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)

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An Act to establish the Massachusetts judicial security act.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. The General Laws are hereby amended by inserting after chapter 221C the following chapter:-

CHAPTER 221D. MASSACHUSETTS JUDICIAL SECURITY ACT

Section 1. Definitions

(1) As used in this chapter, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:

“Data broker”, a commercial entity that collects, assembles, or maintains personal information concerning an individual who is not a customer or an employee of that entity in order to sell the information or provide third party access to the information.

"Immediate family", the spouse, child, or parent or any other blood relative who lives in the same residence as a justice or retired justice of the supreme judicial court, appeals court or trial court.

"Personal information", the Social Security number, home address, home phone number, mobile phone number, or personal email of, and identifiable to, that individual.

“Protected Individual”, a justice or retired justice of the supreme judicial court or appeals court, a judge, recall judge or retired judge of the trial court.

SECTION 2. (a) No state agency, county agency or municipal agency shall publicly post or display the personal information of any protected individual on the internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual.

(b) Each protected individual may file a written notice of their status as a protected individual, for themselves and immediate family to any state agency, county agency or municipal agency; provided further, the protected individual shall ask each state agency, county agency or municipal agency to mark as confidential that protected individual’s personal information.

(c) Upon receipt of a written request in accordance with this section, the state agency, county agency or municipal agency shall remove the protected individual’s personal information from publicly available content within 72 hours.

SECTION 3. (a) It shall be unlawful for a data broker to sell, license, trade, purchase, or otherwise provide or make available for consideration a protected individual’s personal information.

(b) No person, business or association shall publicly post or publicly display the personal information of a protected individual or a protected individual’s immediate family on the internet if the protected individual has, either directly or through an agent, made a written request of the data broker, person, business, or association to not disclose said personal information.

(c) A data broker, person, business or association, shall upon receipt of a written request in accordance with this section, remove the personal information in question from the internet within 72 hours.

(d) A data broker, person, business or association shall ensure, after receiving a written request in accordance with this section, that the protected individual’s personal information is not made available on any website or subsidiary website controlled by that data broker, person, business or association.

(e) After receiving a protected individual’s written request, no data broker, person, business or association shall transfer the judges’ personally identifiable information to any other person, business or association through any medium.

(f) An at-risk individual whose judges' personally identifiable information is made public as a result of a violation of this Act may bring an action seeking injunctive or declaratory relief in any court of competent jurisdiction. If the court grants injunctive or declaratory relief, the person, business or association responsible for the violation shall be required to pay the at-risk individual’s costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

Section 4. This Act shall take effect 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act.