Identification Documents

Civil Code Division 3, Part 4, Title 1.80 deals with identification documents in California.

Section 1798.79 states that a person or entity that intentionally remotely reads or attempts to remotely read a person’s identification document using radio frequency identification (RFID), for the purpose of reading that person’s identification document without that person’s knowledge and prior consent, is to be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, a fine of not more than $1,500, or both that fine and imprisonment.

A person or entity that knowingly discloses, or causes to be disclosed, the operational system keys used in a contactless identification document system is to be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, a fine of not more than $1,500, or both that fine and imprisonment.

This does not apply to a person or entity that unintentionally remotely reads a person’s identification document using RFID in the course of operating a contactless identification document system unless it knows it unintentionally read the document and thereafter intentionally does any of the three specified acts.

Section 1798.795 defines the terms: “contactless identification document system,” “data,” “identification document,” “key,” “radio frequency identification,” “reader,” and “remotely.”