Drivers’ Licenses

In the waning hours of the session, the legislature approved an important ACLU bill designed to address privacy concerns raised by the state’s new barcoded drivers’ licenses. The bill explicitly limits the information that can be stored on the bar code to only that which appears on the license itself. The legislation further limits the ability of third parties to use information contained on the bar code. For example, because the devices that read the bar codes can also capture the digitized information, stores could have swiped driver’s licenses to confirm a customer’s identity but then used the information for marking purposes. The new law will prevent that.