DOVER, Del. - The Delaware House passed legislation Tuesday that would prohibit most reverse-keyword warrants in the state.
House Substitute 1 for House Bill 145, sponsored by Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton and Sen. Marie Pinkney, would bar law enforcement agencies and courts from requesting, issuing or enforcing reverse-keyword court orders and requests.
Reverse-keyword warrants allow law enforcement to seek information from search engine providers and other applications about people based on internet searches or digital activity. Supporters of the bill say the warrants raise privacy and constitutional concerns because they do not require probable cause tied to one specific person.
“As the use of reverse keyword warrants continues to increase and people become more aware that everything they search online, from their casual curiosities to their most intimate queries, could be caught up in a digital dragnet search, online speech will be chilled,” Wilson-Anton said.
Wilson-Anton said the bill is meant to protect Delawareans’ constitutional right to privacy.
Supporters say Delaware law enforcement agencies have not used reverse warrants. However, they say Delaware’s role as the incorporation home for many U.S. companies means businesses incorporated in the state could still be forced to comply with requests from out-of-state actors.
The bill would include limited exceptions for investigations involving the most serious crimes. In those cases, reverse-keyword search results would be limited to no more than five, and information unrelated to the case would have to be destroyed.
“Passing HS 1 for HB 145 through the House Chamber was an important step toward safeguarding the right to privacy for Delawareans, as well as people all over the country,” said John Reynolds, deputy policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Delaware.
Pinkney said the bill is needed to prevent digital activity from being used against Delawareans.
“No Delawarean should be subjected to the invasive surveillance of reverse keyword warrants,” Pinkney said.
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
