Chicago City Wire

As household smart devices harvest increasingly significant amounts of sensitive information from users, the Illinois House has passed a bill to protect citizens' privacy.

Devices such as smart TVs, home security cameras, smart thermostats and video doorbells collect and store sensitive information that many users would prefer to keep private.

There is no law in Illinois to keep this data private or protect citizens' privacy from electronic snooping, Chicago Sun-Times reported. On April 22, the Illinois House passed House Bill 2553, dubbed the Protecting Household Privacy Act, to safeguard the privacy of Illinois citizens.

"In a rapidly changing technological world, data privacy is everyone’s right," Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) said in a May 7 Twitter post. "House Bill 2553, the Protecting Household Privacy Act, would prevent law enforcement from accessing the data on your Ring doorbells, Alexas, and similar devices without a warrant or your consent."

Under the legislation, law enforcement would be required to obtain a search warrant before confiscating household electronic devices to collect stored data as evidence. Except in criminal investigations, collected data would have to be destroyed in 60 days to prevent misuse. The bill has measures that would provide exceptions for emergencies. 

An earlier draft of the bill contained clauses requiring businesses to inform users what information they collect and pass it on to, but these measures were dropped.

The bill was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The Senate is expected to pass the bill and forward it to the governor's desk for his signature.