Comments
GUEST COMMENTARY - The California Legislature appears to be on track to gut privacy protections for the citizens of California. Currently, the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) says that anyone who reads or attempts to learn of the contents of private communications in an unauthorized manner is guilty of a criminal offence. But SB 690 would blow a gaping hole in our privacy laws by making an exemption for any “commercial business purpose.”
Clearly, this makes a mockery of CIPA. No one can monitor or collect your communications – unless it's a business that sees a way it can make money by doing so. This would allow any company with a web site to suck up as much info as it could while you're visiting, and then to track your activity after you leave. This would be great for the tech industry, but terrible for everybody else in California. It basically means that anybody using the internet can be subjected to continuous surveillance.
So, who's behind SB 690? An analysis written for the California Senate appears to cite the Alliance for Legal Fairness as its primary source. Unfortunately, a search on the net doesn't turn up any results for the Alliance for Legal Fairness. A search on the California Secretary of State's web site shows no entities by that name. A query about the Alliance was sent to the Senate staffer who prepared the analysis, who said to ask the author of the bill, State Senator Anna Caballero. Senator Caballero's office didn’t offer any info about the Alliance but said that the person leading the “support coalition” was Sarah Boot.
Sarah Boot is the founder and principal of Boot Advocacy, a government relations and advocacy firm. According to the web site, she's a leading tech lobbyist, and since the tech industry would reap huge benefits if SB 690 passes, her involvement shouldn't be surprising. Ms. Boot responded to an e-mail asking for info on the Alliance for Legal Fairness by referring the question to the general counsel for the Alliance. As of this writing, he hasn't yet responded to a request for a list of the group's members. This means we still don't know exactly who's behind SB 690, but since a tech lobbyist is leading the “support coalition”, it seems likely that the tech industry is heavily involved. In fact, we have to ask if Senator Caballero's office even wrote the bill. Was it actually written by tech lobbyists?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says SB 690 would give “Big Tech and data brokers a green light to spy on us without consent for just about any reason.”
Given the changes that have occurred since CIPA was enacted, it may be time to amend the law, but the exemption this bill grants is way too broad and opens the door to corporate spying for any "commercial business purpose." SB 690 would allow corporations to collect personal data from private citizens without any meaningful boundaries. This would set the stage for a corporate surveillance state, where corporations could collect and share citizens' data with impunity. In the current environment, imagine how this could be used to target:
· undocumented immigrants
· women seeking abortions
· protesters speaking out on issues of importance
SB 690 would also allow companies to monitor and record communications sent by minors. Take a moment to think about how the abuse of this exemption could impact children and teens.
Furthermore, there's already ample evidence that data brokers are selling personal data to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement agencies. The passage of SB 690 would send a message to these agencies letting them know that they have nothing to fear from buying Californian's personal data.
SB 690 has been approved by the State Senate and is now working its way through the Assembly. If you’d like to contact your Assembly rep to weigh in, the time is now. If you don’t know who represents you in the Assembly, this link will help you find out.
Every day there are people all over the globe working to access your personal info. In California, CIPA offers strong protection against those who want to invade your privacy. If SB 690 passes, you can kiss that protection goodbye.
(Jeff McDonough is a member of Citizens for a Better Los Angeles, a non-profit organization serving the people of LA. www.betterla.net)
