Sponsored by:
Senator JOHN F. MCKEON
District 27 (Essex and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires rental car company to delete personal information of customer from motor vehicle computer system upon return of vehicle.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning rental car companies and supplementing P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section:
“Motor vehicle” shall have the same meaning as defined in R.S.39:1-1.
“Personal information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is associated with, a person, including, but not limited to, navigation history, phone data, and garage door codes.
“Rental car company” means a person engaged in the business of renting motor vehicles to the general public at retail, including renting vehicles on an hourly, daily, per trip, or other short-term basis.
“Renter” means a person renting a motor vehicle from a rental company.
b. When a rented motor vehicle is returned to a rental car company, the rental car company shall delete the personal information of a renter from the motor vehicle computer system by performing data-clearing protocols in accordance with the Guidelines for Media Sanitization developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology using techniques specified by the vehicle manufacturer to overwrite data or by using a menu option to reset the device to original factory settings.
c. A rental car company that violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of $500 for a first offense, and $1,000 for any subsequent offense, to be collected and enforced by the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety in a summary proceeding pursuant to the “Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999,” P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.). The Superior Court shall have jurisdiction over proceedings for the enforcement of the penalty provided by this section.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires rental car companies to delete the personal information of a renter from the motor vehicle computer system upon processing the return of any rented vehicle.
When deleting a renter’s personal information from a vehicle, the rental car company is required to comply with data-clearing protocols in accordance with the Guidelines for Media Sanitization developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology using techniques specified by the vehicle manufacturer to overwrite data or by using a menu option to reset the device to original factory settings.
A rental car company that violates the provisions of this bill is subject to a civil penalty of $500 for a first offense, and $1,000 for any subsequent offense, to be collected and enforced by the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.
Under the bill, a “rental car company” means any person engaged in the business of renting motor vehicles to the general public at retail, including renting vehicles on an hourly, daily, per trip, or other short-term basis.