(a) The county recorder of each county shall establish a social security number truncation program in order to create a public record version of each official record.

(1) The program shall include both of the following components, which the recorder shall implement concurrently:

(A) For each official record recorded between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 2008, the recorder shall create in an electronic format an exact copy of the record except that any social security number contained in the copied record shall be truncated. In order to create a public record copy, the recorder shall first truncate the social security numbers in all records that already exist in an electronic format and then create an electronic version of all other records and truncate social security numbers contained in those records. Each group of records shall be handled in descending chronological order.

(B) For each official record recorded on or after January 1, 2009, the recorder shall create a copy of that record in an electronic format and truncate any social security number contained in that record.

(2) The program may include a component for each official record recorded before January 1, 1980, pursuant to which the county recorder may create a copy of that record in an electronic format and truncate any social security number contained in that record.

(b) Nothing in this article shall be construed to restrict, delay, or modify access to any official record, or modify any existing agreements regarding access to any official record, prior to the creation and availability of a public record version of that official record. A county recorder shall not charge any new fee or increase any existing fees in order to fund the social security number truncation program pursuant to this article, except as provided in subdivision (d) of Section 27361.

(c) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), a county recorder shall not be required to create a public record version of an official record if the fee authorized in Section 27304 is determined by the recorder to be insufficient to meet the cost of creating the public record version. In that case, the county recorder shall determine whether the fee is sufficient to meet the cost of creating a public record version of only a fraction of the official records described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a). If the fee is sufficient to meet the cost of creating a public record version of a fraction of the official records, the recorder shall be required to create a public record version of that fraction only.

(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 621, Sec. 1. (SB 184) Effective January 1, 2018.)