Effective January 1, 2011, Assembly Bill No. 1813 (Lieu) amended California Government Code Sections 6254.21 and 6254.24, which allows specified peace officers and elected officials to request that their home address and/or telephone number be removed from public display on the Internet. These amendments extend the opt-out provision to all peace officers in California, allowing them to block online search engines, such as ZabaSearch.com and ussearch.com, from posting their personal information. Additionally, the bill extends the opt-out provisions to include applications for smart cellular phones (iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid, etc.). Failure to remove a peace officer’s information after a request may result in civil penalties.
What does the law do?
1. Websites are required to remove your private information within 48 hours after being requested to remove information
2. Officers plus anyone living at same address are included
3. $1000 penalty per incident
4. Officer can sue civilly
5. Minimum payment to officer is $4000
6. Company that is found at fault, they are force to pay all court and attorney fees
7. You can use a 3rd party to assist you in private information removal
