Reader Privacy Act Passes California Senate with Unanimous Bipartisan Support

Today, California lawmakers took an important step towards updating reader privacy for the digital age. The California Senate passed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602) with a unanimous bipartisan vote of 40-0.

The Reader Privacy Act is authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), co-sponsored by the ACLU of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and supported by diverse organizations and companies, from the Consumer Federation of California to Google.

The Reader Privacy Act would update California state law to ensure that government and third parties cannot demand access to Californians' reading records without proper justification. It would also provide greater notice and transparency about when and how often government and third parties are demanding reading records. (Learn more about the bill here.)

The books we read reveal private, often sensitive information about our political and religious beliefs, our health concerns, and our personal lives. And throughout history, government and third parties have tried to collect records [pdf] of these reading habits to monitor activists and trample unpopular ideas and beliefs. That's why California law has long recognized the importance of safeguarding reading records and other expressive material. Now it's time to modernize those safeguards to match the way we buy and read books today.

We applaud the Senate for passing this bill with such a strong bipartisan vote. Now it's onto the Assembly. Please learn more about the Reader Privacy Act and contact your state lawmakers and Governor Brown today. Urge them to support this bill and ensure that digital book upgrades don't lead to reader privacy downgrades!

Nicole A. Ozer is the Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director with the ACLU of Northern California.