If Passed, Cal-ECPA Would Become ‘Most Comprehensive State Law on Digital Searches and Seizures’
The California State Assembly’s public safety committee unanimously passed the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal-ECPA) July 14 and referred it to the appropriations committee. The bill would “forbid warrantless cellular ‘stingrays’ as well as searches of documents and data…
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stored online,” wrote King & Spalding attorney Daniel Ray in a blog post Wednesday. State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, in February introduced the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously in June. But “enactment is not guaranteed” because Gov. Jerry Brown (D) twice vetoed Cal-ECPA’s predecessors in 2012 and 2013, Ray said. If the legislation is enacted, “it would be the most comprehensive state law on digital searches and seizures in the United States,” Ray said. The law would go further than the Supreme Court’s decision in Riley v. California that said a cellphone search required a warrant by “outlawing warrantless remote searches” using “stingrays,” he said. Cal-ECPA would also apply to communications and metadata stored in the cloud, but wouldn't prohibit service providers from disclosing requested information voluntarily or limiting requests made under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act or other federal law, he said.