Hanni Fakhouri writes:
For the third straight year, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed common sense electronic privacy legislation, ensuring that California remains behind the rest of the country when it comes to technology law and policy.
On Saturday he vetoed SB 467, an EFF-sponsored bill that would have required state law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant in order to get the contents of electronic communications from an Internet or online service provider. Federal electronic privacy legislation is woefully outdated and 1986’s Stored Communications Act (“SCA”) permits police to obtain the contents of electronic communications without a search warrant if it has been stored online for more than 180 days. Most states, including California, have adopted the SCA. Congress has considered proposals to update the statute, but as the effort stalls in DC, courts, companies and state legislatures stepped up instead.
Read more on EFF.
It’s a shame that California, which has been so progressive in protecting privacy in other respects, has been so reluctant to enact this badly needed law.