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 Happening
Proponents 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 Risk
This 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 Now
S.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.
