Proposition 24 contains a one-word change to current law that dramatically curtails privacy protections for Californians when they travel, according to consumer advocates.
In its statement opposing Prop 24, the League of Women Voters of California wrote, “Under current California law, your privacy follows you wherever you go. Under Prop 24, while a user’s data would be protected within California, any stored data could be collected and used by a business when the user leaves California.”1
Mark Toney, Ph.D., Executive Director of TURN – The Utility Reform Network, stated, “Prop 24 reduces California privacy protections. It changes the law to allow cell phone carriers and internet providers to capture personal data stored on a phone, computer, or device the minute you travel outside the state with a device. Vote No on Prop 24.”
Buried in Prop 24’s 52 pages of fine print is a one-word change to the law that ends the prohibition that stops businesses from collecting “personal information when the consumer and stored personal information is outside of California.” [Proposition 24, section 1798.145(a)(7)]
“Under Prop 24, when your phone pings a cell tower in Nevada or any other state, businesses have the green light to upload your confidential personal data. The same is true for wearable apps and computers that have geolocation tracking. This is one of many privacy reductions hidden in Proposition 24,” stated Richard Holober, President, Consumer Federation of California.
“The harm to privacy is always hidden in the fine print. Businesses know that few consumers read the thousands of words of legal jargon that they must approve to use a new app or online service. Likewise, few voters will take the time to read Proposition 24’s 20,000 words,” Holober added. “We urge voters to consider the opposition of advocates in the consumer, privacy, social justice, small business and faith communities that have examined this deeply flawed measure.”
Almost every non-profit consumer and privacy group that has reviewed the initiative disapproves of Prop 24. Opposition grows daily, with the ACLU of California, League of Women Voters, Consumer Federation of California, The California Council of Churches, California Nurses Association, the California Alliance for Retired Americans, Communications Workers of America District 9, Consumer Action, Color of Change, Public Citizen, Center for Digital Democracy, California Environmental Justice Alliance, and Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights joining several small business groups in opposing Prop 24. Sixteen daily newspapers have written editorials urging readers to vote No on Prop 24 after studying the initiative. Learn more at www.prop24no.org
1 https://lwvc.org/vote/elections/ballot-recommendations/prop-24consumer-data-privacy
SOURCE Californians for Real Privacy – No on Proposition 24
www.prop24no.org