STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3328

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1641

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1641, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GOVERNMENTAL ACCESS TO STORED COMMUNICATIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to increase the privacy rights of individuals and simplify the standards by which law enforcement is able to access certain information by:

     (1)  Requiring a search warrant in order to compel disclosure to a government entity of the contents of electronic communications, regardless of whether the communications were held in storage or not, how long the communications have existed, or if the communications are classified as retrieved or unretrieved; and

     (2)  Requiring a court order in order to compel disclosure to a governmental entity of non real-time, or historical, transactional records and requiring the court order to issue only if the governmental entity demonstrates probable cause that the records sought constitute a crime or are relevant to a legitimate law enforcement inquiry.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu.

     Your Committee finds that users of electronic communication services and remote storage providers have various privacy rights.  Existing state law requires law enforcement to obtain a court order before having access to retrieved electronic mail and electronic mail that has been held in storage for more than one hundred eighty days.  Furthermore, probable cause must be shown for the issuance of a court order to access transactional records.  This measure provides even greater privacy protection for individuals by requiring a search warrant for disclosure of electronic communications and streamlines the criteria that law enforcement must satisfy to access certain information, without unduly interfering with law enforcement's need to investigate criminal activity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1641, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair