“More states should be like Utah — a phrase that’s probably never been uttered before.”
So said TechDirt, a technology publication, discussing the nation-leading privacy law our Libertas Utah team got passed.
Consider this: your digital data is protected from warrantless access when it’s on your computer or mobile device. But when you upload it to the cloud—when you send it through or to a third party—the US Supreme Court has claimed that you don’t have the same privacy protections. Police officers don’t need a warrant. They can simply go to Dropbox, Google, Verizon, or whoever has the data, and tell them to hand it over.
Our model legislation imposes the same privacy protections against government access regardless of where your data is stored or transmitted. It’s still yours, and it should be protected accordingly.
In an age when we communicate digitally on a regular basis, it’s absurd to argue that we do not have an expectation of privacy merely because our communication relies upon or involves third parties. The law needs to catch up with technology, and Utah has now done that. Now, the Libertas Institute team is helping legislatures around the country advance these nation-leading privacy initiatives.