California Location Privacy bill moves to full Senate vote

Most of the California Location Privacy Bill to require a warrant to access location information from cellphones is moving on for consideration by the full Senate. What isn't moving forward is the section requiring wireless providers to produce a detailed report on the information they provide to government agencies. Senate Bill 1434, introduced by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), was recently approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee with an amendment. Five members of the committee ultimately approved the bill, but not without some dissent. Three members accepted the bill in its entirety and two voted for it after the reporting requirement was removed. The bill is an amendment to the Penal Code, to clarify the use of this ubiquitous and near-constant data stream in our pockets. Truly, with internal GPS, our cellphones probably know more about our movements than even our loved ones.