(Inside California Politics) — This week on Inside California Politics, Sen. Adam Schiff had a wide-ranging discussion with correspondent Eytan Wallace.
Plus, state Sen. Josh Becker shared details about how his new legislation, the Delete Act, will help Californians. And two political insiders shared insights into the escalating feud between Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump.
Schiff reflects on ICE facility tour
Schiff visited the Capitol in Sacramento this week, where he served as a state senator from 1996 until 2000. He met with state lawmakers to ask how he can best support lawmakers’ plans to mitigate federal funding cuts — meetings he said were very productive.
He also sat down with Inside California Politics correspondent Eytan Wallace to discuss his recent tour of California’s largest ICE detention center.
Schiff said he and fellow California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla wanted to see what conditions were like in the California City Detention Facility, which holds up to 2,500 people. He called the tour thorough, but he recounted the “heartbreak” of meeting detainees — the vast majority of whom Schiff said had never committed a crime besides being an undocumented immigrant.
Read more: Heartbreaking’: Schiff tours California ICE facility
Schiff discussed other topics, too, including federal health care cuts. The senator said he is skeptical there will be a deal reached federally on extensions to the Affordable Care Act tax credits, better known as Obamacare, because Republicans “don’t want to save it.”
“The bill that passed the House … will probably never get a vote in the Senate,” he said. “If it does, they will vote it down, which is a tragedy.”
Before last year’s government shutdown, hoped there was an opportunity for a bipartisan solution — but that optimism has since waned.
Schiff also said that although most Republicans in Washington, D.C. will not speak publicly against the president, many tell him in private conversations that Donald Trump’s desire to control Greenland is “crazy.”
Trump vs. Newsom — now on WWE?
Two political experts talked about the back-and-forth between Trump and Newsom, which dominated the news this week when the political foes both traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.
Republican political strategist Rob Stutzman said the Newsom vs. Trump feud is “a lot like pro wrestling.”
“There’s almost a little bit of scripting to it,” he said. “They each get what they want out of it, which is a lot of attention.”
Newsom flew halfway across the world to try to engage Trump, and he did that. Stutzman said — but what does that have to do with governing California?
Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta agreed Newsom’s public antics are “sort of an act,” comparing the governor’s comments to a Netflix show.
“But, as Rob said, it doesn’t change anything that’s happening here at the state Capitol,” Acosta said.
Leading the fight against Trump helps Newsom in his potential presidential campaign, both analysts said. But Stutzman questioned whether over-the-top mockery made the Democratic governor look un-presidential.
Acosta and Stutzman also considered why the race for governor remains so wide open despite several high-profile potential hopefuls declining to run.
Becker’s bill creates data privacy tool
More than 150,000 Californians have already signed up for DROP, a new tool that gives Californians their very own delete button for their personal data.
As of Jan. 1, people can use the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform to demand data brokers delete all the information they have collected on an individual. Starting Aug. 1, brokers must delete that data within 90 days.
Wallace spoke this week with state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, who authored the Delete Act. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023, directed state agencies to create DROP.
Wallace: For people just learning about this — why did you say, “Hey, I’ve got to author this law?”
Becker: I learned about what was happening. So for years, really decades now, Californians have had this information collected about them by entities that they don’t know of, that they didn’t approve. They didn’t sign anywhere saying, “You can go buy and sell my information.” And this is really very personal information about where we live, where we’ve worked, where we’ve visited.
I said, you know, we have to give California a chance to really reclaim control of our personal information. Let’s make the personal personal again. And we’ve got to start by deleting information from these data brokers who are the ones collecting all this information.
Wallace: So let’s talk about those data brokers. What is the message you hope this law sends to those data brokers who are collecting this information about all of us?
Becker: I hope it sends a message that, number one, Californians have a right to our personal information, a right to our privacy. And number two, we have to make it easy for them to exercise that right. It can’t be super complicated — going to 550 different websites, putting in your information, hoping something works. We need to make it easy.
That’s really what the Delete Act was all about and our implementation of it with the DROP button that you mentioned is — that makes it easy for people to do.
Wallace: Explain how companies can even collect our information in the first place? I mean, what exactly are we talking about here? Are they collecting phone numbers, our addresses, more than that? And why?
Becker: I think folks collect information from many different sources: from online activity, from public information, from purchase history, data shared from other companies. Then they build detailed profiles of each one of us. And that’s really what they buy and sell.
That information can include where you’ve lived, who your roommates have been, where you’ve gone, what you’ve purchased, are you in a relationship. [Becker authored a follow-up bill to help figure out what other types of information data brokers collect.] Do they collect information about your immigration status, whether you’re a member of a union, your biometric information, physical kinds of information, are these things they collect? Because many of them are collecting that and we haven’t known.
Wallace: This is, in many ways, about protecting not just the privacy but also public safety here?
Becker: Yeah, in the sense that — number one, where do scammers get their information? Well, they can buy information about each one of us, just like an advertiser can buy information from any one of us. So, it behooves us to not have our information out there in this way, to help protect us, and then also, you know, not have this information being sold by entities we didn’t give permission to do so.
Wallace: This Delete Act received support from California Attorney General Rob Bonta. It received support from Gov. Gavin Newsom — he signed it into law after all. Newsom called it a “game changer.” It also had support from various consumer privacy rights advocacy organizations. But it also had opposition from “Big Tech” and the California Chamber of Commerce.
This from a coalition of nine business trade organizations: “The [Delete Act] creates a duplicative and potentially confusing regime for companies that are already subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act, which already includes disclosures around collection activities and otherwise provides consumers with deletion rights and the ability to opt out of the sale and sharing of [personal information].”
Becker: Well, Eytan, I’ve been working on privacy for a long time. Actually, I have my own website, Becker For Privacy, F-O-R Privacy, because it’s been a big focus of mine. And no industry wants to be regulated. But I think the proof is in the pudding in this case. What we’ve seen with over 155,000 people just in a couple weeks signing up for this information … shows that we’ve really struck a nerve here.
Number one, people didn’t know how to take advantage of, or how to delete their information before, and that they now understand what is happening. And then number two, they understand how to take action. So I think that really the proof is in the pudding that we had done some good things in the past, but it wasn’t clear how to delete your information. And that’s why I did this, because I wanted the simplicity of the DROP button. And again, the proof is in the pudding with so many people signing up and being excited about it.
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