NEW YORK – California now requires police to get a court order before they can search messages, photos and other digital data stored on your phone or company servers.
But civil-liberties advocates say the new law highlights the need for similar protections at the national level.
The California Electronic Communications Privacy Act was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. It’s only the third of its kind in the U.S.
While some states do guarantee some of its protections, only Maine and Utah previously had comprehensive laws on the books, says Hanni Fakhoury, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The digital rights group, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, news organizations and tech companies, worked for the bill’s passage, arguing that existing laws desperately needed an update.
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