Roundup: "California Adds Digital Books to Privacy Laws" & Full Text of Signed Legislation
From The Hill:
California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation Monday to cover digital book records under state privacy laws.
The Reader Privacy Act will go into effect on January 1, 2012 and will require police or other third parties to have a warrant or court order to access digital book records. Similar protections already exist for library records.
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“California law was completely inadequate when it came to protecting one’s privacy for book purchases, especially for online shopping and electronic books,” said state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who sponsored the bill. “Individuals should be free to buy books without fear of government intrusion and witch hunts. If law enforcement has reason to suspect wrongdoing, they should obtain a court order for such information.”
Read the Full Text of the California Reader Privacy Act
History of the Bill (Including CA. House and Senate Votes)
See Also: “California’s Reader Privacy Act Signed into Law” (via EFF)
See Also: “California Now Has Strongest Law Protecting Reader Privacy in the Digital Era” (via ACLU Southern California)
See Also: “California Gets Reader Privacy Act: Still Not Enough (via ReadWriteWeb)
See Also: Our Post From Last Week About Privacy, eBooks, and Libraries
We focus on the recently released OverDrive/Amazon.com feature allowing users to download eBooks to read on Kindle devices.
Filed under: Libraries, Patrons and Users, Publishing, Roundup
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.