LA protests fuel California drive to hide data from Trump
SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump's aggressive response to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles is fueling a California push to insulate state residents' personal data from Washington.
Tech-skeptical California lawmakers and activists fear the Trump administration will leverage tech tools to track and punish demonstrators accused of interfering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. One possible instrument at ICE's disposal: location data, a highly detailed record of people's daily movements that's collected and sold by everything from weather apps to data brokers.
California Democrats introduced at least a half-dozen measures this year aimed at bolstering the state's already-tough data protections, but several died as Sacramento grapples with a $12 billion budget deficit. Those efforts are taking on new meaning as the protests and ICE raids gain national attention.
California Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat, told POLITICO he may reintroduce a bill next year that failed this spring, which aimed to close a loophole on location data. California's existing privacy laws limit local law enforcement from sharing license plate data with ICE and other federal agencies, but standards for online location data are weaker.
Ward said he 'absolutely would not' put it past Trump to leverage location data in ICE investigations, citing the Department of Government Efficiency's fight to access sensitive personal information stored in Social Security records.
'Who knows how they could package that and repurpose it for their interests,' Ward said in an interview.
Devices and apps collecting location information can share it with data brokers, which in turn can sell the information to federal agencies like ICE without asking for user consent. A 2022 report from the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology, updated last month, found ICE has extensive purchasing contracts with data brokers like LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta in March pledged to investigate businesses that appear to be breaking California's rules for protecting location data, citing concerns about Trump's immigration policies. He declined to comment on the investigation when POLITICO asked for updates this week.
Privacy advocates argue the president's vow to quash the Los Angeles protests with troops — a move Gov. Gavin Newsom cast as 'authoritarian' — highlights why California Democrats should guard sensitive personal information from the Trump administration.
'Clearly the president is looking for a fight with California,' Leora Gershenzon, policy director for the nonprofit California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, told reporters during a press call this week.
Federal law enforcement agencies have a 'huge number' of tech tools at their disposal to track protesters' location, like data from cell phone towers and automated license plate readers, said Catherine Crump, a technology law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Trump-appointed officials are already using tech to investigate Los Angeles protesters. Bill Essayli, a former state Assembly member who recently became the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, told Fox LA this week his office will comb through every piece of available video and social media evidence to track down demonstrators accused of interfering with law enforcement.
'Just rest assured, the FBI is monitoring everything,' Essayli, a Southern California Republican, said Monday, singling out people accused of throwing projectiles at officers or damaging federal property. 'We will come get you.'
Gershenzon said location data-sharing could open the door for a free speech crackdown. 'It is just scary to think of what could become with all of that location data in the hands of this government.'
Ward's failed measure, which would have prohibited companies from selling location information to federal agencies and private parties like data brokers, stalled after California's powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee blocked it from proceeding to a floor vote.
Ward said he wasn't sure why the Appropriations Committee blocked his bill, though pro-business groups argued it would inflict 'significant' costs on businesses. A spokesperson for Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks didn't return a request for comment.
Notably, there's no concrete example yet of federal officials using location data to track anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles. Spokespeople for ICE and Essayli's office declined to say whether investigators would leverage the technology to pursue people accused of impeding immigration enforcement.
But privacy advocates said Trump's response to the LA protests should prompt lawmakers to reconsider Ward's bill.
"We are learning from the rise of authoritarianism around the world,' said Samantha Gordon, chief program officer at nonprofit TechEquity, pointing to how other countries have used online surveillance to target protesters. 'This is part of us trying to make sure that we're prepared.'
A version of this story first appeared in California Decoded, POLITICO's morning newsletter for Pros about how the Golden State is shaping tech policy within its borders and beyond. Like this content? POLITICO Pro subscribers receive it daily. Learn more at www.politicopro.com.
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