アリの一言:伸長・参政党(神谷代表)の本音は「天皇主権」
放送事業者におけるガバナンス確保に関する検討会(第1回)配付資料
ICTサービスの利用環境の整備に関する研究会(第6回)
沖縄県知事からの審査の申立てに関する総務大臣の裁定
情報通信審議会 情報通信技術分科会 陸上無線通信委員会空間伝送型ワイヤレス電力伝送システム作業班(第10回)
デジタル空間における情報流通の諸課題への対処に関する検討会(第7回)・デジタル広告ワーキンググループ(第12回)・デジタル空間における情報流通に係る制度ワーキンググループ(第12回)合同会合 配付資料
令和7年度から実施する生体電磁環境研究及び電波の安全性に関する評価技術研究に係る提案公募の結果
政見放送及び経歴放送実施規程の一部を改正する件(案)に対する意見募集の結果
第9回統計作成プロセス部会
California’s Corporate Cover-Up Act Is a Privacy Nightmare
California lawmakers are pushing one of the most dangerous privacy rollbacks we’ve seen in years. S.B. 690, what we’re calling the Corporate Cover-Up Act, is a brazen attempt to let corporations spy on us in secret, gutting long-standing protections without a shred of accountability.
The Corporate Cover-Up Act is a massive carve-out that would gut California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and give Big Tech and data brokers a green light to spy on us without consent for just about any reason. If passed, S.B. 690 would let companies secretly record your clicks, calls, and behavior online—then share or sell that data with whomever they’d like, all under the banner of a “commercial business purpose.”
Simply put, The Corporate Cover-Up Act (S.B. 690) is a blatant attack on digital privacy, and is written to eviscerate long-standing privacy laws and legal safeguards Californians rely on. If passed, it would:
- Gut California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)—a law that protects us from being secretly recorded or monitored
- Legalize corporate wiretaps, allowing companies to intercept real-time clicks, calls, and communications
- Authorize pen registers and trap-and-trace tools, which track who you talk to, when, and how—without consent
- Let companies use all of this surveillance data for “commercial business purposes”—with zero notice and no legal consequences
This isn’t a small fix. It’s a sweeping rollback of hard-won privacy protections—the kind that helped expose serious abuses by companies like Facebook, Google, and Oracle.
You Can't Opt Out of Surveillance You Don't Know Is HappeningProponents of The Corporate Cover-Up Act claim it’s just a “clarification” to align CIPA with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). That’s misleading. The truth is, CIPA and CCPA don’t conflict. CIPA stops secret surveillance. The CCPA governs how data is used after it’s collected, such as through the right to opt out of your data being shared.
You can't opt out of being spied on if you’re never told it’s happening in the first place. Once companies collect your data under S.B. 690, they can:
- Sell it to data brokers
- Share it with immigration enforcement or other government agencies
- Use it to against abortion seekers, LGBTQ+ people, workers, and protesters, and
- Retain it indefinitely for profiling
…with no consent; no transparency; and no recourse.
The Communities Most at RiskThis bill isn’t just a tech policy misstep. It’s a civil rights disaster. If passed, S.B. 690 will put the most vulnerable people in California directly in harm’s way:
- Immigrants, who may be tracked and targeted by ICE
- LGBTQ+ individuals, who could be outed or monitored without their knowledge
- Abortion seekers, who could have location or communications data used against them
- Protesters and workers, who rely on private conversations to organize safely
The message this bill sends is clear: corporate profits come before your privacy.
We Must Act NowS.B. 690 isn’t just a bad tech bill—it’s a dangerous precedent. It tells every corporation: Go ahead and spy on your consumers—we’ve got your back.
Californians deserve better.
If you live in California, now is the time to call your lawmakers and demand they vote NO on the Corporate Cover-Up Act.
Spread the word, amplify the message, and help stop this attack on privacy before it becomes law.
CA: Stop the Corporate Cover Up Act (S.B. 690)
S.B. 690 is a corporate cover-up. Tell California lawmakers to reject it.
California’s S.B. 690 would gut long standing privacy protections and give corporations free rein to secretly surveil, record, and profit off Californians’ private moments. If passed, it would:
● Legalize corporate interception of real-time communications, location data, and device activity without consent
● Allow companies to use invasive tools like wiretaps, pen registers, and trap-and-trace devices for any “commercial business purpose”
● Remove accountability by eliminating your right to sue under California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)
● Create new risks for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, abortion seekers, and protesters
【お知らせ】ヒロシマが再び『軍都』になるの?―高校生たちと共に考える私たちの未来 7月5日(土)13時から18時 広島弁護士会館
Communities at the centre: Africa launches groundbreaking training for ICT network managers
Our staff and trustees
To contact individual staff members, replace [at] with @.
Chris Jones (Executive Director)
Chris has been working for Statewatch since 2010 and in September 2020 was appointed as Executive Director. He specialises in issues relating to policing, migration, privacy and data protection and security technologies.
- Email: chris [at] statewatch.org
- @earsinfingers
Romain Lanneau (Consultant Researcher)
Romain Lanneau is a legal researcher, publishing on the topics of migration, asylum, and the use of new technologies for public policies. He has been working for Statewatch since 2022. As an independent consultant, he worked for the European Network Against Racism, Fair Trials International and Data Rights. In addition to leading investigation and producing research, Romain has been assisting activists with strategic litigation on digital rights issues. He holds a LLM in International Migration and Refugee Law from the University of VU Amsterdam as well as a Master degree in Public International Law from the University of Lyon III.
- Email: romain [at] statewatch.org
- @romainlanneau
Yasha Maccanico (Researcher)
Yasha has worked for Statewatch since 1998, providing news coverage, analysis and translations to link EU policies to events on the ground in the justice and home affairs field in several member states (UK, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Portugal). He has extensive public speaking experience in civil society and academic contexts and in 2019 completed a PhD at the University of Bristol in Policy Studies on the topic of 'European Immigration Policies as a Problem: State Power and Authoritarianism'.
- Email: yasha [at] statewatch.org
- @yashamac1
McKensie Marie (Head of Communications)
McKensie joined Statewatch in early 2024 to lead its communications efforts, shaping and implementing our communications strategy. She manages external outreach and oversees all aspects of our communication work. With experience as a communications specialist, designer, copywriter, and researcher, McKensie has worked with NGOs and charities across Europe and North America. She holds a BA in Culture & Political Studies from The Evergreen State College, USA, and an MA in Cultural Encounters & Communication Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark. In addition to her communications role, McKensie conducts academic research on international development, political communication, and cultural identity.
- Email: mckensie [at] statewatch.org
- @mckensiem
Rahmat Tavakkoli (Finance & Administration Worker)
Rahmat joined Statewatch in September 2021 to take care of our financial and administrative procedures, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and contribute to the smooth running of the office and the organization.
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Tony Bunyan (Founder, Director, 1991-2020; Director Emeritus, 2020-2024)
Tony passed away in September 2024. You can find our tribute to his life and work here.
Trustees
Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche
Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche is Professor of Law at the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, honorarium member of the Institut Universitaire de France, and fellow of the Institut Convergence Migrations. Her researches focus on the exigencies of the rule of law and their limitations in cases of exceptions: the situations of serious crises which allow the concentration of powers and restriction of rights (e.g. the use of the state of emergency), and the areas of legal confinement which are conducive to abuses of power and rights infringements (e.g. camps and centres where migrants and refugees are detained). She is member of the editorial board of various reviews and is involved in numerous academics networks regarding human rights law. You can find more information about her activities and publications on her personal webpage.
Laure Baudrihaye-Gérard
Laure is a lawyer based in Brussels, where she works on EU and Belgian criminal justice policy. She qualified as a solicitor in London, specialised in EU law and worked in private practice in both London and Brussels before studying criminology. After participating in several academic research projects, Laure joined Fair Trials, a criminal justice watchdog, in 2018. As Legal Director for Europe, she led on EU advocacy, strategic litigation in European courts and the coordination of a European-wide network of criminal defence lawyers, civil society and academic organisations. She has also been working as a prison monitor since 2019 in a large pre-trial detention prison in Brussels, and since 2020 heads up the appeals committee that adjudicates on complaints from detained people against the prison administration.
Jonathan Bloch
Jonathan Bloch studied law at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Economics. He was politically involved in South Africa in the worker and student movement and remains active in human rights circles in the UK. From 2002 until 2014 he chaired the Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust, one of the largest scholarship awarding organisations in South Africa. He was a councillor in the London Borough of Haringey 2002-14. He has co-authored several books on intelligence. He owns and runs a worldwide financial information business across four continents.
Victoria Canning
Victoria Canning is senior lecturer in Criminology at the University of Bristol. She has spent over a decade working on the rights of women seeking asylum, specifically on support for survivors of sexual violence and torture with NGOs and migrant rights organisations. She recently completed an ESRC Research Leaders Fellowship focussing on harmful practice in asylum systems in Britain, Denmark and Sweden, and the gendered implications thereof. Vicky has experience researching in immigration detention in Denmark and Sweden, as well as Denmark’s main deportation centre. She is currently embarking on a study of torture case file datasets with the Danish Institute Against Torture which aims to create a basis from which to better identify and thus respond to sexual torture and sexualised torturous violence with refugee survivors of torture more broadly.
Nadine Finch
Nadine was a member of the Statewatch contributors group for a number of years and also previously a trustee. She was a human rights barrister between 1992 and 2015 and an Upper Tribunal Judge from 2015 to 2020. She is now an Honorary Senior Policy Fellow at the University of Bristol and an Associate at Child Circle, a children's rights NGO based in Brussels.