BILL NUMBER: S2185
SPONSOR: PARKER
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring
e-mail service providers to implement a procedure to authenticate an
individual's identity when such individual creates an e-mail account
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Requires email service to implement a procedure to authenticate an indi-
vidual's identity when such individual creates an email address.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: The general business law is amended by adding a new section
390-e.
Section 2: This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it
shall have become law.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The difficulty in determining the real-life identity of an email account
holder, in many cases, is next to impossible. Therefore, it is necessary
that we disallow bad actors to have free reign to create a new, anony-
mous online identities at a moment's notice to evade the consequences of
their criminal actions.
The freedoms of the internet are important. It is indisputable that
anonymity is a good thing when it comes to conducting legitimate, legal
online activity. However, a line is crossed when this freedom to engage
in malicious, anonymous activity online empowers a person to cause
immeasurable damage to another in the physical world.
The requirement that authentication be conducted to create an email
account is necessary to prevent Internet crime from harming people the
physical world. With authentication, district attorney's will be
empowered to find and arrest cyber criminals, giving all Internet users
peace of mind in knowing that if they are defrauded, there is a good
chance that the perpetrator of the fraud will be apprehended.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: S4850-Referred to Internet and Technology
2021-22: S8301 - Referred to Internet and Technology
 
FISCAL /HPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This law shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become law.