Gov. Brown vetoes requiring a warrant for cellphone location info

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Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have required law enforcement officers to get a search warrant in order to obtain location information generated by a cellphone, tablet computer or automobile navigation system.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said his bill followed the lead of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional for police to install a Global Positioning System device on an individual’s car without a warrant.

“California consumers are rightfully concerned about mobile privacy and the rate at which their location information is being shared with law enforcement,” Leno said after his bill was approved by the Legislature with support from the ACLU of Northern California.

But Brown said he was not convinced that SB 1434 was the correct solution.

“It may be that legislative action is needed to keep the law current in our rapidly evolving electronic age,” Brown wrote in his veto message. “But I am not convinced that this bill strikes the right balance between the operational needs of law enforcement and the individual expectation of privacy.”

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-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento