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Reporters and lawyers warn lawmakers that networked commercial surveillance can bypass oversight and chill constitutional rights
Summary
Investigative reporting and legal experts at an Assembly hearing said commercial surveillance networks and third-party data-sharing can enable cross-jurisdictional searches and government access without warrants, urging statutory limits, evidentiary privileges, and protections for children’s data.
At a California Assembly informational hearing, investigative reporter Jason Kebler and law professors urged lawmakers to confront how private surveillance infrastructure — from license-plate readers to doorbell cameras and analytics vendors — can be repurposed by law enforcement and third parties in ways that evade existing constitutional protections.
"Local citizens become guinea pigs for things like autonomous drones, license plate reader technology," Kebler said, describing patterns where surveillance startups deploy discounted pilot…
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