California "Mugshot" Publication Laws and Statutes Existing & Pending Into 2024!

RemoveArrest.com Removes online mugshot listings, arrest record listings, documents, files and other unwanted public information listed on Google, Yahoo!

First, let's look at the most stringent related laws: California Civil Code 1798.91.1
California Law Information And FAQ's!

Does the California mugshot law prevent websites from posting mugshot photos?
No.

Does the California mugshot law prevent websites from demanding payment to remove the photos?
Yes.

Does the California mugshot law require that websites remove the mugshot photos?
No.

Does the California mugshot law prevent websites from accepting payment for removal of the mugshot photos?
Yes.

What if I want to pay to have my mug shot photo removed from a website?
Too bad. The ironic aspect of the law if even if you unilaterally send money for removal, without any request, a website can have liability for accepting your payment. The result is the law may forever harm you because there is no incentive for websites to remove mug shot photos.  Note that the mugshot websites have other possible means of monetizing their site other than removal fees. Such as general banner advertising.

The result of the law is even if you feel you are being defamed by a photo and you want to pay to have the picture removed, it will not be removed.

The harm to your career, reputation and person and will outweigh the cost of removing the mug shot a million times over. The legislative analysis reflects this issue was considered but the legislature decided it was more important to withhold money from websites than to protect your privacy and reputation.

There are, fortunately, creative ways to legally pay to have your mugshot obfuscated and de-indexed from Google and all other major Search Engines. RemoveArrest is determined to find a solution that will comply with the law, allow First Amendment freedoms and facilitate the removal of associated content from Search Results.  We are a Search Engine Results Firm with over 2 decades of experience.  We https://cleansearch.com started BEFORE GOOGLE.COM!

Does the California mugshot law apply to booking pictures taken in California of a person who lived in another state at the time the mug shot was taken?
No, if the mug shot website is not based in California. If the website is in California then there may be jurisdiction a California court can assume for the website’s activities.

Does the California mugshot law apply to booking pictures taken in California of a person who lived in California at the time of the mug shot but has since moved out of state?
No, if the mug shot website is not based in California. If the website is in California then there may be jurisdiction a California court can assume for the website’s activities.

Does the California mugshot law apply to booking pictures taken in another state of a person who was a California resident at the mug shot was taken, if the mugshot was posted after the person moves to another state?
No, if the mug shot website is not based in California. If the website is in California then there may be jurisdiction a California court can assume for the website’s activities.

Does the California mugshot law apply to booking pictures taken in another state of a person who has moved to California after their mug shot was taken?
Yes. The legislative analysis suggests there is an intent to protect California residents regardless of where the mugshot website is located. However, there is likely a very good defense that activity legal in one state cannot be made illegal simply because a person moves to California in order to invoke this law and file a lawsuit.

Does the California mugshot law apply to websites based out of California?
Yes. The legislative analysis suggests there is an intent to protect California residents regardless of where the mugshot website is located. However, many other California laws purport to have such broad reach and constitutional issues prevent the courts from acting. In other words, California cannot legislate that its laws apply to the worldwide Internet.

Does the California mugshot law violate the First Amendment?
Answer: This one will need to be decided by the courts, although the legislative analysis notes similar laws have been enacted in about five states (with laws introduced in another fourteen) and presumably that has been litigation to decide this issue. Commercial speech is typically afforded less First Amendment protection, but the issue here is not a direct restriction on speech. Mugshots can be posted. The question is whether a fee can be charged to remove the mugshot, which is an obvious indirect attempt to prevent websites from exercising their right to post and profit from public information.

Does the California mugshot law apply to my arrest record, or the fact of my arrest? What if I was not convicted of a crime?
No. The new law only applies to booking photographs. It does not apply to the fact of an arrest, it does not apply to an arrest record, it does not apply to any criminal charges being considered filed – even if charges were never filed – even if you were found innocent of any crime.

What will be the practical result of the law?
More websites base their operations offshore so they are untouchable, and they increase the fees charged to remove mug shots.

HERE ARE SOME TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS WE PROVIDE TO ACCOMPANY ALL PARTIES AND STAY LAW COMPLIANT:

The Problem:
If a website has already posted a mugshot photo, the new 2015 California law imposes liability if the website requests, requires or accepts any payment, fee, or other consideration from the person in the photo to remove, correct, modify, or refrain from publishing or disseminating the booking photo.

What if the website refused to remove the photo upon request for free?
What if a person wants to pay to have their photo removed because it is damaging their reputation, career, and privacy - perhaps costing them a job or a loss of money? Why should the law create harm to the claimed victim? But also, why should the Website owner entertain any removal when that is the ONLY way they would violate the law?  This calls for is a REAL SOLUTION that make everybody happy and is fair to all.  RemoveArrest has the solution:

The Solutions:
After reviewing the law, Civil Code section 1798.91.1 RemoveArrest finds we are ALREADY implementing many various solutions simply to convince site owners to take action.  Remember, their instinct is to REMOVE NOTHING. RemovaArrest solutions allow them to do just that, WHILE STILL ACCOMADATING OUR CLIENTELE.

1. The law only prohibits payment "from" the person in the photo. Not "for" the person. Have payment be made from someone else, such as a family member.
The payment should not come from an attorney or person acting as an agent of the person, as that could be deemed to be coming from the person. Rather, payment should be from an independent person, like a family member.  However, since we only charge for residual snippet removal, a direct person utilizing RemoveArrest is not paying for removal from their database, but for the removal of the content which Google and other search engines REFUSE to remove.  RemoveArrest Service will attend to all related residual fallout emanating from the source and appearing in search engine results (as snippets).  Then we safely monitor the search results subsequent to our service in order to catch all collateral residual content that may appear as results associated with your name-search.

2. Pay to have the person's name and arrest information removed. This text is what shows up in the search engines.
Without accompanying text and name a photo is unlikely to be seen. If it does, the photo would be unlikely to appear associated with the person.  This method is not preferred or accepted by any Website we know of, and is not as perfect a solution.

3. Pay to have the page the content resides on blocked from Search Robots.
The website then has a specific coding process which must be manually installed and administered, designed to omit the page from Search robots by utilyzing a command on an alternate page!  This allows RemoveArrest technicians the availability to remove the content permanently from Search Engines such as Google. This is the preferred and most effective manor! If this sounds a little computer geeky and does not make sense to you, don't worry, RemoveArrest technicians are there to handle everything. Technically, the website is not removing the content from its website and is perfect compliance with the law, as they are literally not removing the content.  However, as a practical matter no one will ever find it, as RemoveArrest will facilitate ALL residual content removal associated with the site content. The alternate-page is tagged with compliant mark-up coding which successfully blocks Search Engines like Google from indexing and storing the page content on their servers. The associated content then resides on the web page that no one links to, or no one knows about. We call it "Deindexing" a page, or "De-indexing".

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