AB 521

This bill prohibits certain acts that violate a person's right to privacy. Current

law prohibits installing or using a surveillance device that has been installed in a

private place to observe a nude or partially nude person without that person's

consent. The bill clarifies that a surveillance device need only be capable of observing

the activities of a person and need not be primarily designed for that purpose. Under

the bill, a person may not install or use in a private place a surveillance device to view

a nude or partially nude person in a private place without that person's consent.

Under current law, a person who captures a representation of a nude or

partially nude person without the person's consent and while that person has a

reasonable expectation of privacy, or a person who makes, exhibits, or distributes a

reproduction of such a representation of the nude or partially nude person, is guilty

of a Class I felony.

Under the bill, a person is guilty of a Class I felony if he or she makes,

reproduces, exhibit, or distributes a video or audio representation of a person who

is nude or partially nude; of a person's clothed, covered, or partially clothed or covered

genitalia or buttock that is not otherwise visible to the public; of a person urinating,

defecating, or using a feminine hygiene product; or of a person engaged in sexual

intercourse or sexual contact, and if the same conditions of lack of consent and

expectation of privacy exist.

The bill defines consent as "words or overt actions by a person who is competent

to give informed consent indicating a freely given agreement to the act," and

establishes that a person under the age of 18 is incapable of consent. Under the bill,

a person suffering from a mental illness or defect that impairs his or her capacity to

appraise personal conduct and a person who is unconscious or otherwise physically

unable to communicate unwillingness to an act are presumed incapable of giving

consent.