Safe Cloud Storage Act
New Rules for Companies Storing Child Abuse Evidence for Police
To limit liability for certain entities storing child sexual abuse material for law enforcement agencies, and for other purposes.
This bill is currently in the early stages of the legislative process after being referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. It is considered active, but no further hearings or votes have been scheduled at this time.
Part of: story →Legislative Progress
Key Points
- This bill, called the Safe Cloud Storage Act, helps law enforcement work with private tech companies to store digital evidence of child abuse. It allows police to use modern cloud storage services to hold this evidence instead of relying only on their own local computers.
- It protects these 'approved' tech companies from being sued or facing criminal charges for having this illegal material on their servers. As long as they are following their contract with the police and keeping the files for an investigation, they are protected from legal trouble.
- To get these protections, companies must follow strict security rules. They have to use high-level encryption, limit which employees can see the data, and pass a yearly cybersecurity audit to make sure the files are safe from hackers and unauthorized access.
- The bill requires that this sensitive evidence stays on servers located within the United States. Companies also have to officially notify the Department of Justice within 30 days of starting a contract to store this kind of evidence for a police agency.
- The legal protection is not absolute. If a company is reckless, acts with 'actual malice,' or handles the data for reasons that have nothing to do with the police investigation, they can still be held responsible in court for their actions.
Impact Analysis
Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.
Milestones
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
News
No related news coverage found for this legislation yet.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
To limit liability for certain entities storing child sexual abuse material for law enforcement agencies, and for other purposes.
Data Sources
Sponsor
Cosponsors
(3)Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.