AB 793: Privacy: reverse demands.

The United States Constitution generally requires a state to give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. Existing law sets forth procedures by which a person may enforce a judgment for the payment of money issued by the court of a state other than California.

Existing law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, determines how governmental entities may access information on electronic devices and from electronic communication service providers, as defined. Existing law requires a California corporation that provides electronic communication services or remote computing services to the general public to comply with a warrant issued by another state to produce records that would reveal the identity of the customers using those services, data stored by, or on behalf of, the customer, the customers usage of those services, the recipient or destination of communications sent to or from those customers, or the content of those communications as if that warrant had been issued by a California court, except as specified.

This bill would prohibit any government entity from seeking, or any court from enforcing, assisting, or supporting, a reverse-keyword or reverse-location demand, as defined, issued by a government entity or court in this state or any other state. The bill would prohibit a person or California entity from complying with a reverse-keyword or reverse-location demand. The bill would require a court to suppress any information obtained or retained in violation of these provisions, the United States Constitution, or California Constitution. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to commence a civil action for compliance with these provisions.

The bill would require a government entity to immediately notify any person whose information was obtained in violation of these provisions of the violation and of the legal recourse available, as specified. The bill would authorize an individual whose information was obtained, or a service provider or other recipient of the reverse-keyword or reverse-location demand to file a petition to void or modify the demand or order the destruction of information obtained in violation of these provisions. The bill would authorize an individual whose information was obtained by a government entity in violation of these provisions to bring a civil suit against the government entity for damages, injunctive or declaratory relief, or other relief that the court deems proper.

The California Constitution provides for the Right to Truth-in-Evidence, which requires a ²/₃ vote of the Legislature to exclude any relevant evidence from any criminal proceeding, as specified.

Because the bill would require any information obtained or retained in violation of the bills provisions to be suppressed in a trial, hearing, or other proceeding, it would require a ²/₃ vote.

The bill would make these provisions severable.