Bill protects state employees' privacy
Sponsor of good privacy bill: Needed to protect state employees from “hackers, stalkers, crooks, other unsavory folks”; meanwhile, Freedom Foundation asks Supreme Court to give them access to your date of birth.
In the attached photos (from left): Antonio Garcia, Local 443; Dennis Eagle, WFSE/AFSCME legislative and political action director; and Melissa Kover, Local 443.
The sponsor of the humane Senate bill to keep state employees’ dates of birth private made a passionate plea for passage during today’s (Jan. 19) committee hearing.
Two AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) members endorsed SB 6079, sponsored by Sen. Patty Kuderer of the 48th Dist.
SB 6079 would exempt public employee dates of birth from public disclosure requirements.
The issue is already in the courts. AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) won before the state Court of Appeals in October where judges said state employees have a constitutional right to keep their dates of birth private.
Kuderer said SB 6079 is simple and sends a strong message to the Freedom Foundation types.
“It removes from public disclosure the birthdate of public employees so that hackers and stalkers and crooks and other unsavory folks can’t get it for illegitimate purposes,” Kuderer told the Senate State Government Committee.
The Freedom Foundation wants state employees’ dates of birth for who knows what reason. That anti-state employee foundation has appealed the Federation’s victory in the Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court.
Kuderer said she became alarmed about this breach of state employees’ privacy after attending cybersecurity briefings in her role as a state senator.
“I learned that the birthdate is one of the most highly solicited and sought-after pieces of data because so much can be done with it, including building an alternative identity of you on what’s known as the ‘Dark Web.’
“So I started thinking about why we would risk that sort of thing with our public employees. What is the point of having their birthdate public?”
Kuderer acknowledged that some may say that information is needed for government transparency.
“But the truth is the public safety concerns far outweigh any” concerns critics may have, she said.
Local 443 members Antonio Garcia and Melissa Kover, who work at the DSHS Division of Child Support office in Tumwater, echoed Sen. Kuderer’s passion for their privacy.
“In my line of work, we get a lot of threats,” Garcia said.
He told the committee he gets three or four threats a month.
“Having birthdates accessible to the public is a risk to us – it’s a safety issue,” Garcia said.
“It’s really scary...to know they can get that information and potentially show up at my house,” Kover said.
No hearing date has been set on the Freedom Foundation’s appeal to the Supreme Court to get your date of birth.
The Senate State Government Committee has scheduled a vote on SB 6079 for Jan. 26.
