Senator Ken Bogner from Miles City has introduced a bill that would submit a Constitutional Amendment that would protect the privacy of electronic communications for all Montana citizens.

Bogner spoke to KGVO about the bill on Tuesday.

“Senate Bill 203 is a proposed amendment to our Constitution,” said Bogner. “In Article Two Section 11 in our Constitution, it says that people shall be secure in their persons, their papers, homes and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures. Well, Senate Bill 203 will add in there that electronic data and communications will be in that same section and that they are protected as well.”

Bogner stated the obvious fact that our entire lives exist in the digital world, and must be protected.

“I saw that a majority of everything we do now is electronic; our finances, our medical information; in fact, our conversations are even being listened to and stored,” he said. This amendment makes it explicit that our electronic data and communications are protected from unreasonable search and seizures.”

Bogner said the bill will require the voters to amend the state Constitution.

“This would in fact, require going to the people of Montana on a ballot initiative but in order to do that, at first has to pass the legislature with a two thirds majority voting yes for the bill,” he said “So it's got to have majority support from the legislature, which I think is great, and then once that happens, it would go to the people.”

Bogner said the recent election and the rapid rise in the power of Big Tech are the best reasons to pass this bill and amend the state Constitution as soon as possible.

“The last few months, I think it's opened a lot of people's eyes of how much data is being collected from us, and that people are looking at that data, and they are determining whether you should have a voice or not,” he said. “I think a lot of these issues are coming to light and now is the time to make sure that our electronic communications and our data is protected from legal search and seizure.”

Read the text of the bill here.

 

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