California: Local Governments Need Privacy Rules

Fifty years ago, California passed the “Information Practices Act of 1977”—or the IPA for short—in direct response to the Watergate scandal and concerns it raised about government data collection and consolidation. It’s high time for an update.

That’s why EFF is proud to co-sponsor A.B. 1337, authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), with our close friends at Oakland Privacy.  

The IPA puts a check on government use of personal information by establishing guardrails for how state agencies maintain, collect, and disseminate data. It also gives people the right to access and correct their information.

And while the need for the law has not changed, the rest of the world has. Today,  far more data collection is now done at the county and city level. Yet local and county government entities have no standard protections in the state of California. And those entities have troves of data, whether it’s the health data collected from vaccine programs or held by county-administered food programs.

A.B. 1337 expands the definition of covered entities in the IPA to include local agencies, offices, departments and divisions. It also prevents information collected from being used for unintended or secondary purposes without consent.

As we face our own wave of concern about government demands for data, we cannot afford to wait for these protections any longer. Passing A.B. 1337 is good governance, good policy, and just good sense. If you’re a California resident, tell your Assemblymember to support the bill today.