Sacramento – On Tuesday, March 23, at 1:30 pm PT, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge California senators to crack down on location tracking by passing SB 210, a bill that would require the destruction of automatically collected license plate data within 24 hours of collection, among other robust reforms. You can watch the hearing on the California Senate website.
EFF is a co-sponsor of SB 210, which was introduced by State Sen. Scott Weiner earlier this year. The bill is aimed at combatting unbridled data collection by police departments using automated license plate readers (ALPRs) installed both in fixed locations like streetlights and on patrol vehicles. This data is uploaded with GPS and time and date information into a searchable database, which means police can search the historical travel patterns of anyone caught in the ALPRs wide net.
Last year, following a request from Sen. Wiener and EFF, the California State Auditor completed an investigation of four California law enforcement jurisdictions, finding that all four agencies were failing to establish policies that respect privacy and civil liberties as required by current law. EFF Director of Investigations Dave Maass, who has led a public records campaign to gather records on ALPR from more than 70 agencies statewide, will testify at Tuesday’s hearing, explaining how SB 210 can help restrict the massive data collection and protect Californians from intrusive surveillance.
WHAT:
Hearing on California SB 210
WHEN:
1:30 pm PT/4:30 pm ET
March 23
WHO:
EFF Director of Investigations Dave Maass
WHERE:
https://www.senate.ca.gov/
