California Senate Rejects Online Privacy Bill

By John Rossi :: 11:25 AM

A bill proposed by northern California senate Democrat Ellen Corbett, that would have required social networking sites, like Facebook, to hide users’ personal information stalled on the state Senate floor last week, but may come up for one more try next week.

The bill failed, in part, due to aggressive lobbying by Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech businesses. They oppose legislation that would force them to quickly take down personal information from sites upon request and allow parents of children to edit their kids’ postings and profiles to exclude information like as home addresses and telephone numbers.

The bill, SB 242, was introduced in February, and set a fine for violations that could have been punishable by up to $10,000.

The measure was supported by law enforcement and consumer advocacy groups, including the California State Sheriffs’ Association, the Child Abuse Prevention Council and Consumer Watchdog. Many of these groups argue that parents should have a legal authority to order websites to remove online information that puts children at risk.

Corbett, who unsuccessfully proposed a similar measure last year, said that she plans to bring this  bill back for another vote next week. She told the Sacramento Bee, “I guess they’re just trying to kill a bill that’s going to protect people’s privacy.”