California Senate Bill 501, a social networking privacy bill, was introduced by Senator Ellen Corbett, California Senate Majority Leader, to add § § 60 to 65 to the Civil Code and enact the “Social Networking Privacy Act.”
As last amended on April 30th, Senate Bill 501 would require a social networking Internet Web site, as defined, to remove the personal identifying information, as defined, of any registered user, as defined, within 96 hours after his/her request and also require the removal of that information in that same manner regarding a user under 18 years of age upon request by the user’s parent or legal guardian. The bill would impose a civil penalty, not to exceed $10,000, for each willful and knowing violation of these provisions.
Senator Corbett explained her social networking privacy bill here.
This is not the first time that privacy laws relating to social networking internet web sites were proposed:
- CA Assembly Constitutional Resolution No. 106 (Nava, 2008), would have urged user-generated content Internet Web sites to work with the Safety Technical Task Force and law enforcement to reduce the use of those Internet Web sites for purposes of criminal behavior. This resolution died on the Assembly Floor.
- CA Senate Bill 632 (Davis, 2009), would have required a social networking Internet Web site to provide a disclosure to users that an image which is uploaded onto the Internet Web site is capable of being copied, without consent, by persons who view the image, or copied in violation of the privacy policy, terms of use, or other policy of the site. This bill was vetoed.
- CA Senate Bill 1361 (Corbett, 2010), would have prohibited a social networking Internet Web site, as defined, from displaying, to the public or other registered users, the home address or telephone number of a registered user of that Internet Web site who is under 18 years of age, as provided. This bill failed passage in the Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee.
- CA Senate Bill 242 (Corbett, 2011), would have prohibited a social networking Internet Web site from displaying the home address or telephone number, in specified text fields, of a registered user who identifies himself/herself as under 18 years of age. This bill failed passage on the Senate floor.
Currently, California’s Senate Bill 501 passed the Senate and has been sent over to the Assembly where it is being held at the desk pending assignment to an Assembly policy committee for review of this social networking privacy bill.