As new technology creates increased possibilities for surveillance — including drones, body-worn cameras, automated license plate readers, red light cameras and even potentially your television – the California Legislature is paying renewed attention to privacy concerns and the way our conceptions of privacy may change in light of technological developments. In response, the state Assembly created a new Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection, and recently introduced a new package of bills that may address some of these issues.

Among the proposed legislation is a bill banning the sale of televisions that can record conversations and transmit them to a third party. Other bills in the package include proposed laws that would:

• Establish a minimum data encryption standard companies would need to apply to personal data like health records
• Bar drones from flying over schools
• Require police agencies equipping officers with body cameras to develop a public usage policy
• Protect body worn camera footage taken inside a home without a warrant from public disclosure
• Impose tougher penalties for hacking data from computers

There is no guarantee that all, or any, of these will become laws. But what this bevy of proposals indicates is a renewed focus on concerns about privacy as technology makes the possibility of pervasive surveillance increasingly likely. The way that privacy is legislated, and even conceived of, will have to evolve to conform with a world where technology allows much of what we say and do to be surreptitiously recorded and transmitted to third parties. It is early yet to determine the breadth or effectiveness of this proposed legislation, and an active debate about the balance between innovation and consumer protection is sure to occur. For now, though, the formation and early actions of the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protections sends a clear signal —individual privacy is up for major public debate.