(a) The State Registrar shall appoint a Vital Records Protection Advisory Committee to study and make recommendations to protect individual privacy, inhibit identity theft, and prevent fraud involving birth, death, and marriage certificates while providing needed access to birth, death, and marriage record information to those seeking it for legitimate purposes. The committee shall have the following duties:

(1) Review and make recommendations as to the adequacy of procedures to safeguard individual privacy and prevent fraud, while ensuring appropriate access to birth, death, and marriage records.

(2) Make recommendations to the State Registrar as to items that should be redacted from informational certified copies of birth, death, and nonconfidential marriage certificates issued pursuant to Section 103526.

(3) Make recommendations to the State Registrar regarding fraud prevention measures concerning vital records.

(b) The committee shall include representatives from private and governmental entities that use vital records as identity or legal documents, consumers, law enforcement officials, genealogists, and organizations that research vital records for legal or social purposes. The State Registrar shall make every effort to ensure that committee membership also represents the community at large.

(c) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), membership on the committee shall be for a term of three years.

(2) Appointments shall be made on a staggered basis to allow for a change of one-third of the membership on an annual basis. One-third of the initial committee membership shall be appointed to one-year terms, and one-third of the initial committee membership shall be appointed to two-year terms.

(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 412, Sec. 9. (AB 130) Effective January 1, 2010.)