NY State Senate Bill S2302

Archive: Last Bill Status Via A5294 - Signed by Governor

Introduced
In Committee
On Floor Calendar
- Passed Senate
- Passed Assembly
Delivered to Governor
Signed by Governor

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Actions

view actions (11)

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Nov 25, 2019	signed chap.540
Nov 19, 2019	delivered to governor
Jun 20, 2019	returned to assembly passed senate 3rd reading cal.546 substituted for s2302
Jun 20, 2019	substituted by a5294
May 06, 2019	advanced to third reading
May 01, 2019	2nd report cal.
Apr 30, 2019	1st report cal.546
Jan 23, 2019	referred to consumer protection

Votes

view votes

Jun 20, 2019 - floor Vote

A5294

floor

Aye

Nay

Absent

Excused

Abstained

Apr 30, 2019 - Consumer Protection committee Vote

S2302

committee

Aye

Nay

Aye with Reservations

Absent

Excused

Abstained

show Consumer Protection committee vote details

Consumer Protection Committee Vote: Apr 30, 2019

aye (6)

aye wr (1)

Jacobs

Co-Sponsors

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A5294
Law Section:: General Business Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §§380-a & 380-j, Gen Bus L; amd §§2 & 352, Bank L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2015-2016: S6853, A9150
2017-2018: S8155, A5106

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Prohibits a consumer reporting agency or lender from using the credit scores of members of an individual's social network to determine the credit worthiness of such individual.

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

 
BILL NUMBER: S2302

SPONSOR: KAVANAGH
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general business law and the banking law, in
relation to prohibiting a consumer reporting agency or lender from using
certain information to determine an individual's credit worthiness

 
PURPOSE:

To prohibit a consumer reporting agency or lender from using an individ-
ual's internet viewing history to determine such individual's credit
worthiness

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Section 380-a of the general business law is amended by
adding a new subdivision (u) to read as follows:

u) Members of a consumer's social network: a group of individuals

authorized by a consumer to be part of his or her social media network.
Section 2. Section 380-j of the general business law is amended by
adding a new subdivision (h) to read as follows:

(h) No consumer reporting agency shall collect, evaluate, report, or
maintain in the file on a consumer the consumer's use of internet or web
browsing history as a factor to determine the consumer's credit score,
standing or credit capacity.

Section 3. Section 2 of the banking law is amended by adding a new.
subdivision 30 to read as follows: Members of a borrower's social
network: a group of individuals authorized by a borrower to be part of
his or her social media network.

Section 4. Section 352 of the banking law is amended by adding a new
sixth undesignated paragraph to read as follows:

No licensee shall collect, evaluate, report or maintain in the file on a
borrower, the borrower's use of Internet or internet viewing history as
a factor to determine the borrower's credit worthiness, credit standing
or credit capacity.

Section 5 contains the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Consumers in the United States continue to be under attack by the fuzzy
math used to calculate credit scores. The US General Accounting Office
has estimated that some 75% of credit scores are wrong based on incor-
rect information collected by credit bureaus and attached to individual
credit scores.

As if this was not detrimental enough to the average consumer, credit
scores are used by employers to screen potential employees, by landlords
and even by graduate schools for students applying to business majors.
The errors on these reports and the fuzzy math used to create the credit
score are impacting every aspect of our lives.  To make matters worse,
the FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk, which has become a
fixture of consumer lending in the United States, is moving to add
consumer's social network as another variable in the more than 100 vari-
able equation used to compute a consumer's credit score.

FICO is looking to lumping all of the individual consumers' social
network members credit scores and taking that average into account as a
variable to derive a new credit score for individual consumers.  This is
an obvious invasion of privacy and another fuzzy math approach to hurt
consumers.

It is obvious that individuals in low income communities will have a
social network of similar individuals based on geography only. So why
should low income consumers be further stigmatized and penalized via
worsening credit scores. FICO's attempt to do this should be banned and
this legislation does exactly that.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2018: S8155/A5106 - REFERRED TO RULES/ passed assembly

2017: A5106 - reported and referred to rules

2016: S6853/A9150A - RECOMMITTED TO CONSUMER AFFAIRS AND PROTECTION/
referred to consumer affairs and protection

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf


                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  2302

                       2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                            January 23, 2019
                               ___________

Introduced by Sens. KAVANAGH, SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered print-
  ed,  and  when  printed  to  be committed to the Committee on Consumer
  Protection

AN ACT to amend the  general  business  law  and  the  banking  law,  in
  relation  to  prohibiting  a  consumer reporting agency or lender from
  using certain information to determine an individual's credit  worthi-
  ness

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Section 380-a of the general business  law  is  amended  by
adding a new subdivision (u) to read as follows:
  (U) THE TERM "MEMBERS OF A CONSUMER'S SOCIAL NETWORK" MEANS A GROUP OF
INDIVIDUALS  AUTHORIZED  BY  A  CONSUMER TO BE PART OF HIS OR HER SOCIAL
MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORK.
  § 2. Section 380-j of the general business law is amended by adding  a
new subdivision (h) to read as follows:
  (H)  NO  CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY SHALL COLLECT, EVALUATE, REPORT, OR
MAINTAIN IN THE FILE ON A CONSUMER THE CREDIT WORTHINESS, CREDIT  STAND-
ING  OR  CREDIT CAPACITY OF MEMBERS OF THE CONSUMER'S SOCIAL NETWORK FOR
PURPOSES OF DETERMINING THE CREDIT WORTHINESS OF THE CONSUMER; THE AVER-
AGE CREDIT WORTHINESS, CREDIT STANDING OR CREDIT CAPACITY OF MEMBERS  OF
THE  CONSUMER'S  SOCIAL  NETWORK;  OR  ANY  GROUP  SCORE THAT IS NOT THE
CONSUMER'S OWN CREDIT WORTHINESS, CREDIT STANDING  OR  CREDIT  CAPACITY.
THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SUBDIVISION SHALL BE ENFORCED CONCURRENTLY BY THE
SUPERINTENDENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE DIVISION OF
CONSUMER  PROTECTION AND EACH SHALL UTILIZE THEIR CONSUMER COMPLAINT AND
ASSISTANCE HOTLINES TO DOCUMENT COMPLAINTS BY CONSUMERS WHO BELIEVE THAT
GROUP CREDIT RATINGS OF THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK  ARE  BEING  USED  TO
DENY THEM CREDIT.
  §  3. Section 2 of the banking law is amended by adding a new subdivi-
sion 31 to read as follows:

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                           LBD02186-01-9

S. 2302                             2

  31. MEMBERS OF A BORROWER'S SOCIAL NETWORK. THE  TERM  "MEMBERS  OF  A
BORROWER'S  SOCIAL NETWORK" MEANS A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS AUTHORIZED BY A
BORROWER TO BE PART OF  HIS  OR  HER  SOCIAL  MEDIA  COMMUNICATIONS  AND
NETWORK.
  §  4.  Section 352 of the banking law is amended by adding a new sixth
undesignated paragraph to read as follows:
  NO LICENSEE SHALL COLLECT, EVALUATE, REPORT OR MAINTAIN IN THE FILE ON
A BORROWER THE CREDIT WORTHINESS, CREDIT STANDING OR CREDIT CAPACITY  OF
MEMBERS OF THE BORROWER'S SOCIAL NETWORK FOR PURPOSES OF DETERMINING THE
CREDIT WORTHINESS OF THE BORROWER; THE AVERAGE CREDIT WORTHINESS, CREDIT
STANDING OR CREDIT CAPACITY OF MEMBERS OF THE BORROWER'S SOCIAL NETWORK;
OR  ANY  GROUP  SCORE  THAT IS NOT THE BORROWER'S OWN CREDIT WORTHINESS,
CREDIT STANDING OR CREDIT CAPACITY.   THE PROVISIONS OF  THIS  PARAGRAPH
SHALL BE ENFORCED CONCURRENTLY BY THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE DIRECTOR OF
THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER PROTECTION AND EACH SHALL UTILIZE THEIR CONSUM-
ER COMPLAINT AND ASSISTANCE HOTLINES TO DOCUMENT COMPLAINTS BY BORROWERS
WHO  BELIEVE THAT GROUP CREDIT RATINGS OF THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK ARE
BEING USED TO DENY THEM CREDIT. THE SUPERINTENDENT SHALL ENSURE THAT THE
CREDIT SCORING FORMULAS FILED WITH THE DEPARTMENT DO NOT  CONTAIN  VARI-
ABLES WHICH ACCOUNT FOR INTERNET VIEWING HISTORY AS PART OF THAT FORMULA
BY ASKING THE LICENSEE TO CERTIFY TO THAT FACT.
  § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.

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The New York State Senate

senate Bill S2302

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status Via A5294 - Signed by Governor

Your Voice

Actions

Votes

Jun 20, 2019 - floor Vote

Floor Vote: Jun 20, 2019

Apr 30, 2019 - Consumer Protection committee Vote

Consumer Protection Committee Vote: Apr 30, 2019

Co-Sponsors

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Details

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Summary

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

senate Bill S2302

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Sponsored By

Brian Kavanagh

Archive: Last Bill Status Via A5294 - Signed by Governor

Your Voice

Actions

Votes

Jun 20, 2019 - floor Vote

Floor Vote: Jun 20, 2019

Apr 30, 2019 - Consumer Protection committee Vote

Consumer Protection Committee Vote: Apr 30, 2019

Co-Sponsors

Anna M. Kaplan

Luis R. Sepúlveda

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Details

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Summary

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

S2302 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments