Law Curbing Police Access to Home Data Tests Privacy Boundaries

Law Curbing Police Access to Home Data Tests Privacy Boundaries

December 23, 2021, Bloomberg Law

Chloe Goodwin was quoted by Bloomberg Law about the Protecting Household Privacy Act, a first-of-its-kind law in Illinois limiting law enforcement access to data from household digital devices.

According to Chloe, “The new law in Illinois could ‘complicate compliance efforts’ for companies that are also subject to the Stored Communications Act.” In addition, according to Chloe, “The Illinois requirements don’t map neatly onto the Stored Communications Act framework.”

Chloe said, “That’s because the Illinois law covers data from connected devices but not computing ones, like a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. The state law also excludes “digital gateway” devices such as internet modems and routers or cable set-top boxes.”

According to Chloe, “The federal law applies to stored data, regardless of what device it’s associated with.”