By Jessica Calefati and Katy Murphy, San Jose Mercury News
Law enforcement officers must now get a warrant before reviewing a suspect's emails, text messages and other electronic communications under legislation signed Thursday by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Senate Bill 178, authored by Sens. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, was among a raft of bills Brown acted on Thursday as Sunday's midnight deadline approaches.
A diverse coalition of leading tech companies and civil rights organizations backed SB 178, which some law enforcement organizations initially opposed. Google, Facebook, Apple and other tech giants have seen a surge in requests for data information from police. Brown vetoed a similar bill several years ago, so his position on the issue was unclear until now.
"For too long, California's digital privacy laws have been stuck in the Dark Ages, leaving our personal emails, text messages, photos and smartphones increasingly vulnerable to warrantless searches," Leno said. "That ends today."
©2015 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
