Deeplinks
California has shown itself to be a national privacy leader. But there is still work to do. That’s why EFF is proud to sponsor two bills in this year’s legislature—both with the co-sponsorship of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse—that would strengthen privacy protections in the state. These bills are focused on two particularly pernicious forms of data collection. Both will be heard on April 5 in the California Senate Judiciary Committee, and we’re asking Californians to tell committee members to pass these bills.
Advancing Biometric Privacy
Authored by Senator Bob Wieckowski, S.B. 1189 requires private entities to obtain your opt-in consent before collecting your biometric information. Biometric information is incredibly sensitive and, by its very nature, is tied immutably to our identities. While you can change a password, you can’t change easily change your face, the rhythm of your walk, or the ridges of your fingerprints. Despite this, some companies collect and share this information without asking first—by, for example, taking faceprints from every person who walks into a store. They may then go on to share or sell that information.
This is wrong. People should have control over who they trust with their biometric information. And companies must be held accountable if they break that trust. Like the landmark Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), S.B. 1189 gives individuals the right to sue companies that violate the law. This is the same type of provision that allowed Facebook users in Illinois to take the company to task for collecting their faceprints without permission. That case ended in a $650 million settlement for Illinois’ Facebook users.
This bill has the support of a broad range of both California and national organizations active on
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