Reader Privacy Act.

The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection and, upon request of any person, to provide a copy of any public record unless the record is exempt from disclosure. The act provides that all registration and circulation records of any library that is in whole or in part supported by public funds are confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person, except as provided. Existing law protects the privacy of personal information, including customer records, and requires a business that owns or licenses personal information about a California resident to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information, in order to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. The Civil Discovery Act generally provides for the scope of discovery in civil actions and proceedings, and permits a party to a civil action to obtain discovery by inspecting documents, tangible things, and land or other property in the possession of any other party to the action. This bill would enact the Reader Privacy Act, which would, among other things, prohibit a commercial provider of a book service, as defined, from disclosing, or being compelled to disclose, any personal information relating to a user of the book service, subject to certain exceptions. The bill would require a provider to disclose personal information of a user only if a court order has been issued, as specified, and certain other conditions have been satisfied. The bill would also require a provider to disclose a user's personal information if the user has consented to the disclosure, and would authorize a provider to disclose a user's personal information to a government entity, as defined, if an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury exists, as specified, or if the provider in good faith believes the information is directly relevant to a crime against the provider or user. The bill would require a provider, upon request by a law enforcement entity, to preserve records and other evidence in its possession of a user's personal information pending issuance of a court order or warrant. The bill would impose civil penalties on a provider of a book service for knowingly disclosing a user's personal information to a government entity in violation of these provisions, except as otherwise provided. The bill would require a provider of a book service, except as specified, to prepare a specified report relating to demands for disclosure of personal information of users of the book service, and to publish that information in a searchable format on the Internet, or, if the provider does not have an Internet Web site, to either prominently post the report on its premises or send the report annually to the Office of Privacy Protection. The bill would specify additional requirements for publishing the report for a provider that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers in the state.