Mandate that businesses allow use of "Safe at Home" private addresses
California > Privacy & Surveillance#expandsafeathome
Proposed Dec. 18, 2017

Currently, the state of California offers a fantastic program called "Safe at Home". If you are a victim of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, human trafficking or a reproductive healthcare worker, "Safe at Home" will provide a state PO box and mail forwarding service that protects the location of your primary residence. It is a vital program for people who do not feel safe in their own homes in an era where everyone is trying to capture and put your address online.
However, the law only requires government agencies (voter services, the DMV, etc) to use the private PO boxes. Other businesses like banks or even jobs can still require the location of someone's primary residence. This endangers the safety of individuals in the program. When businesses put addresses online, share them with other organizations, they endanger this vulnerable population. Online tools make this exceptionally easy and one upload of an address to an online database can mean it is spread across the internet, thus negating the entire impact of the "Safe at Home" program.
We need to expand coverage of the "Safe at Home" program to make it illegal to require these participants to share their residential address. If the state PO box is enough for the DMV, it should be enough for all businesses in California. Allow the "Safe at Home" participants to truly stay safe at home.
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Jurisdiction: California
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