Bill > H211

This bill, concerning leased office equipment and privacy, amends existing Massachusetts law to define "hard drive" as a data storage device, "lessee" as someone leasing office equipment with hard drives, "lessor" as someone leasing such equipment, and "office equipment" as items containing hard drives like copiers, printers, fax machines, and CPUs. It then establishes new rules for what happens to hard drives at the end of lease agreements. For both private and public sector leases, the lessor must allow the lessee to purchase and keep the hard drives, with the lessor able to charge the lessee up to the cost of replacement hard drives, including removal, purchase, and installation. However, for public sector leases, the lessee is specifically required to purchase these hard drives and is then responsible for either securely storing the data or destroying the hard drives themselves.