Int. No. 537

By Council Members Holden, Sanchez, Riley, Schulman and Vernikov

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the creation of a centralized mobile application for accessing city services

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Title 23 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new chapter 13 to read as follows:

CHAPTER 13

ACCESS TO CITY SERVICES WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

                     §23-1301 Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:

Commissioner. The term “commissioner” means the commissioner of information technology and telecommunications.

Department. The term “department” means the department of information technology and telecommunications.

§23-1302 Mobile application; creation. a. The department, in collaboration with the chief privacy officer, shall create a mobile application capable of allowing members of the public to access services provided by a city agency. Such mobile application shall include, where relevant:

1. The ability for users to schedule appointments for city services;

2. The ability to remind users about scheduled appointments with a city agency; and

3. The ability to send and receive messages to and from the user with the applicable city agency.

b. The department, in collaboration with other agencies, shall provide public access through such application to all city services except services whose nature makes them incapable of access using mobile application technology.

§23-1303 Accessibility. The department shall adopt an accessibility protocol for the mobile application required by this chapter to ensure the application is accessible for persons with disabilities.

§23-1304 Encryption. The mobile application maintained by the department on behalf of the city or on behalf of any city agency shall encrypt all exchanges and transfers between a web server, maintained by or on behalf of the city or a city agency, and the mobile application shall require web browsers to request such encrypted exchange or transfer at all times, provided that such encryption shall not be required if such exchanges or transfers are conducted in a manner that provides at least an equivalent level of confidentiality, data integrity and authentication.

§23-1305 Open source software. Any custom software, web development service or mobile application created by the department in furtherance of this chapter shall be open source and publicly accessible, except as otherwise provided by the rules of the department.

§23-1306 Alternative methods. The mobile application shall not be the only method to access services provided by a city agency. Each agency shall continue providing access to services provided by such agency without the use of this mobile application.

§23-1307 Information. a. No vendor if used in the creation, maintenance, or operation of such mobile application, shall use or have access to identifying information, as defined in section 23-1201, beyond the scope necessary for the service provided.

b. The user shall have the right to review and delete information- collected from or stored by the mobile application related to such user, provided that such information would not be retained by such agency in the ordinary course of providing access to the service through a different method. Such request shall be satisfied within 10 days of the request.

§23-1308 Biometric identifier information. No biometric identifier information, as defined in section 22-1201, shall be collected by this mobile application.

§ 2. This local law takes effect 180 days after it becomes law.

Session 12

NAB

LS #5966

1/21/22

Session 11

JG/IB

LS #17443

Int. #2358-2021