Van cam privacy debate
continues in civil court

The ACLU requests proof that
the vendor has not withheld files

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a circuit judge to keep alive its lawsuit alleging violations of privacy rights when the state provided the vendor of the defunct traffic camera program with Social Security numbers.

ACLU attorney Brent White said he is not satisfied with the state's assurance that the vendor has given up all Oahu driver's license and vehicle registration information.

On April 11, Judge Gary W.B. Chang gave the state two weeks to retrieve personal data given to vendor Affiliated Computer Services.

Deputy Attorney General Wayne Matsuura told the judge yesterday the state had complied with his request. Matsuura submitted as proof a letter by an ACS employee in Washington, D.C., stating the company had turned over the computer disk containing the data, has not transferred or kept any copies and has removed the information from its computer system.

White dismissed the letter as hearsay and insisted a state official inspect ACS's offices to see firsthand whether the company has complied.

It is likely ACS kept information relating to traffic citations issued, said attorney Brook Hart, another attorney representing the ACLU.

If ACS sues the state because it has not been paid for work performed, it would need to show the state proof of how many tickets it issued, he said.

"The people of Hawaii can't have any degree of confidence that their information has been" kept out of the hands of people other than the state and ACS, Hart said.

Matsuura said the state is still reviewing the matter of paying ACS and the amount it is owed.

With such personal information such as name, address, sex, type of car and Social Security number, a third party could steal a person's identity, White said.

The company may have retained data because it had trouble matching information from traffic camera citations with actual motorists from state driver's license lists, White said.

The judge briefly suspended the hearing to allow Matsuura to call the vendor in Washington, D.C., as to whether it had retained traffic citation information, but ACS personnel could not be reached.

Chang asked the state to provide information concerning the traffic citation information and continued the matter to Monday.