Existing law requires every videogame retailer to post a sign, within the retail establishment in a prominent area, providing information to consumers about a videogame rating system or notifying consumers that a rating system is available to aid in the selection of a game and to make available to consumers, upon request, information that explains the videogame rating system. Existing law, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits a seller of a digital good, including a digital application or game, from advertising or offering for sale a digital good to a purchaser with the terms "buy," "purchase," or any other term that a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good, or alongside an option for a time-limited rental, unless the seller receives at the time of each transaction an affirmative acknowledgment from the purchaser, or the seller provides to the consumer before executing each transaction a clear and conspicuous statement, as specified. Existing law defines "digital application or game" to mean any application or game that a person accesses and manipulates using a specialized electronic gaming device, computer, mobile device, tablet, or other device with a display screen, including any add-ons or additional content for that application or game. This bill, with regard to digital games first available for purchase or rereleased for purchase on or after January 1, 2028, and subject to certain exceptions, would require a digital game operator to communicate specified information to purchasers and prospective purchasers of a digital game 60 days before the operator ceases to provide services necessary for the ordinary use of the game. The bill would, beginning on the date an operator ceases to provide services necessary for the ordinary use of the game, require the operator to provide the purchaser with, among other things, an alternate version of, a patch or update to, or a refund for, the game, as provided, and prohibit the operator from selling, leasing, or otherwise distributing a version of the game that cannot be used by a purchaser independent of services controlled by the operator. The bill would authorize the Attorney General or a district attorney to bring a civil action for a violation of these provisions.
Existing law requires, among other things related to ensuring the safety of companion chatbots, an operator to prevent a companion chatbot on its companion chatbot platform from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, as specified. This bill, the Preventing AI User Self Endangerment (PAUSE) Act, would require an operator to adopt and make publicly available a policy governing its protocol for identifying and responding to credible crisis expressions and, for each companion chatbot an operator makes available to users in this state, implement a system for monitoring and detecting credible crisis expressions in user conversations with companion chatbots. The bill would require, if the monitoring system detects a credible crisis expression, the operator to take certain actions, including commence a crisis interruption pause, as specified. The bill would define "credible crisis expression" to mean a statement by a user of a companion chatbot that reasonably indicates, as determined through contextual analysis rather than keyword detection alone, intent to harm the user or others. This bill would require an operator of a companion chatbot to document certain information related to credible crisis expressions and crisis interruption pauses and, beginning January 1, 2028, annually report that information to the Office of Suicide Prevention. The bill would provide for its enforcement, as specified.
Existing law requires a state agency or department that utilizes generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to directly communicate with a person regarding government services and benefits to ensure that those communications include a disclaimer that indicates to the person that the communication was generated by GenAI, as specified, and information describing how a person may contact a human employee of the state agency or department. This bill would instead require that disclaimer when a state agency or department uses GenAI to directly communicate with the public and would define "directly communicate" to mean to use GenAI, instead of a natural person, to communicate directly with a specific member of the public or to communicate a general public announcement, as specified.
Existing law establishes various privacy protections relating to the collection, use, sale, or distribution of personal information, images, or video recordings, including restrictions relating to the retention, access, use, sale, or sharing of images or video recordings collected through the operation of an in-vehicle camera. This bill would prohibit a security surveillance company, as defined, from distributing, selling, or otherwise authorizing a third party to access, use, or distribute content obtained from a consumer's security surveillance system without first obtaining the express consent of the consumer and the adult residents of a residential rental property or upon receipt of an order of a court or arbitrator.
The Unruh Civil Rights Act requires persons within the jurisdiction of the state to be free and equal and, regardless of the person's sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status, to be entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments, as prescribed, and makes a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) a violation of the act. Existing law imposes liability upon a person who denies, aids, or incites a denial of, or makes any discrimination or distinction contrary to, rights afforded by law for actual damages suffered, exemplary damages, a civil penalty, and attorney's fees, as specified, to any person who was denied the specified rights. Existing law also imposes liability upon a person, firm, or corporation that denies or interferes with admittance to, or enjoyment of, public facilities or otherwise interferes with the rights of an individual with a disability, as specified, for damages and attorney's fees to a person who was denied those rights. This bill would grant to an entity an affirmative defense to a claim seeking statutory damages under the provisions described above on the basis of a specific accessibility barrier on the entity's internet website, as defined, if the entity provided evidence to the plaintiff demonstrating within 30 days of receiving a written prelawsuit demand from the plaintiff that either (1) the entity published a digital accessibility report on the accessibility page of its internet website disclosing the specific access barrier and updated that report to reflect remediation of the access barrier or (2) that various things were true regarding the entity's efforts to identify and remediate access barriers on its internet website, including the entity had a reasonable and good faith basis to believe that the internet website was accessible and conformed with the internet website accessibility standard, as specified. This bill would also prohibit a resource service provider from, in exchange for money or any other form of remuneration, negligently, recklessly, or knowingly constructing, licensing, distributing, or maintaining for online use a resource or part of an internet website that causes an entity's internet website to be inaccessible or not conformant with the internet website accessibility standard if the resource or part of the internet website is within the control of the resource service provider to remediate or from making a false representation that a resource or part of an internet website is accessible or conforms to the internet website accessibility standard. The bill would authorize a small business entity, as defined, and certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General, to bring a civil action to enforce that provision, as specified.
Existing law requires that each death be registered with the local registrar of births and deaths in the district in which the death was officially pronounced or the body was found. Existing law designates persons responsible for completing a certificate of death and the required contents of the certificate. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to implement an internet-based electronic death registration system for the creation, storage, and transfer of death registration information. Existing law authorizes the State Registrar to incorporate computer or telephone facsimile technology, or both, in the statewide program of death registration. This bill would require the State Registrar to use updated technology, including computer and mobile telephone applications, to upgrade the system. The bill would also require that specified individuals, including a physician, medical examiner, and local registrar, have the ability to access the electronic death registration system in addition to the individuals currently responsible for completing a certificate of death. The bill would also authorize specified individuals to attest to a death within the system using electronic, voice, or facsimile methods. The bill would require the department to update the system to allow this.
Existing law, the Genetic Information Privacy Act, requires a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company, as defined, to provide a consumer with certain information regarding the company's policies and procedures for the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure, as applicable, of genetic data, and to obtain a consumer's express consent for collection, use, or disclosure of the consumer's genetic data, as specified. Existing law assesses a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000 for a negligent violation of these provisions, and a civil penalty between $1,000 and $10,000, inclusive, for a willful violation of these provisions. This bill would require all local law enforcement agencies in the state to report to the Attorney General starting July 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, the number of reports filed in the past year on the theft of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and the current status of those cases. The bill would require the Attorney General to, on or before January 1, 2028, report to the Legislature, and post on its internet website, the number of police reports filed on the theft of DNA and the current status of those cases. By increasing duties on local law enforcement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) grants a consumer various rights with respect to personal information, as defined, that is collected or sold by a business, as defined, including the right to request that a business that collects personal information about the consumer disclose to the consumer certain information about that personal information, including the categories of personal information it has collected about that consumer and the specific pieces of personal information it has collected about that consumer. This bill, the Digital Choice Act, would require a social media company or a person that makes an artificial intelligence model available to a third party for use, modification, copying, or combination with other software, defined as a deployer, to allow a consumer to request a copy of the consumer's personal information, contextual data, and social graph and would require the social media company or deployer to respond to that request within five business days in a format that is, among other things, portable to the extent technically feasible. The bill would define "contextual data" to mean information provided by a user to an artificial intelligence model and any context or derivative data associated with the user's interactions with the artificial intelligence model, as specified, and any model-generated or inferred data linked to or generated from those interactions. The bill would define "social graph" to mean data that represents a person's connections and interactions within a social media platform, as specified. This bill would require, among other things, a social media company to implement a transparent, third-party-accessible interoperability interface that allows a user to choose to share a covered user's social graph or user-selected parts of the social graph to a social media platform designated by the user and enable a third party to, with the user's permission, access a social graph created by the user and be notified when a new or updated social graph is available, as prescribed. The bill would require a deployer to implement a third-party-accessible interoperability interface to allow a user to share the user's contextual data directly with other artificial intelligence models as the user designates and enable those artificial intelligence models to be notified when new or updated data is available, as prescribed. This bill would authorize the Attorney General to adopt specified regulations, as provided, and require the Attorney General to enforce the bill's provisions by bringing an administrative action, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations to administer and enforce various laws relating to employment and working conditions. This bill would require an employer to provide a written notice to a worker that a workplace AI tool, as defined, was used to assist the employer in making employment-related decisions or to surveil workers in the workplace. The bill would require the notice to be given to a worker within a specified time and would require the notice to contain specified information, including the specific employment-related decisions likely to be affected by the use of the workplace AI tool. The bill would require an employer to maintain an updated list of all workplace AI tools currently in use and their impact on jobs, as specified, and to provide the list to workers annually. The bill would provide for enforcement by the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor, and alternatively would authorize any worker who has suffered damages, or their exclusive representative, to file a civil action for damages caused by the adverse action. The bill would establish remedies and penalties for violations, including a penalty of up to $500 for each violation. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , which consists of 5 members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. The California Constitution authorizes the PUC to establish its own procedures and authorizes a commissioner as designated by the PUC to hold a hearing or investigation or issue an order subject to PUC approval. This bill would require the Governor, in appointing members of the PUC, to ensure a diverse composition of commissioners by considering factors that contribute to diversity, as provided. The bill would recodify as a statutory provision the PUC's authority to establish its own procedures and the authority of a commissioner to hold a hearing or investigation or issue an order subject to PUC approval. The bill would specify that the recodification only becomes operative if ACA 9 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is approved by the voters, becomes operative, and repeals the corresponding provision in the California Constitution. Existing law vests the PUC with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities. Existing law defines "telephone line" to include all conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, instruments, and appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled, operated, or managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by telephone. This bill would revise the definition of "telephone line" to restrict those items specified above to those in connection with or to facilitate voice communication by telephone. Existing law establishes the California Broadband Council for the purpose of promoting broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas of the state and broadband adoption throughout the state for the benefits of all Californians. Existing law requires the PUC to develop, implement, and administer the California Teleconnect Fund program to advance universal service by providing discounted rates to qualifying schools, community colleges, libraries, health clinics, and community organizations, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to develop, implement, and administer the California Advanced Services Fund to encourage the deployment of high-quality advanced communications to all Californians. Existing law requires the PUC to design and implement a program, commonly known as the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program, to provide telecommunication devices capable of serving the needs of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as specified, that is funded by the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee Fund. Existing law establishes the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund in the State Treasury, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the PUC to be available to fund costs related to the financing of the deployment of broadband infrastructure by a local governmental agency or nonprofit organization, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to maintain and update a statewide, publicly accessible, and interactive map showing the accessibility of broadband service in the state. This bill would create the Broadband and Digital Equity Commission (Broadband Commission) with specified membership, and would, on July 1, 2028, repeal the California Broadband Council and establish the members of the council as a committee of the Broadband Commission, as specified. The bill would establish the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity for the purpose of promoting ubiquitous and universal broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas of the state and to increase broadband adoption throughout the state for the benefit of all Californians. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2028, declare the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity to be the only centralized state department for broadband and digital equity activities within the state authorized to establish rules or regulations for broadband internet access service and internet service providers, as provided. The bill would require the Broadband Commission to appoint the executive director of the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity, who serves at the pleasure of the Broadband Commission, as specified, and would authorize the executive director to appoint, with the approval of the Broadband Commission, necessary staff, as provided. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2028, require the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity to assume the administrative functions of the California Teleconnect Fund Program, the California Advance Services Fund, Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program, and the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund. The bill would specify that, on and after July 1, 2028, the moneys in the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, are available to the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity for the financing of the deployment of broadband infrastructure by a local governmental agency or nonprofit organization, as provided. The bill would, on or after July 1, 2028, transfer the duties to maintain and update a statewide, publicly accessible, and interactive map showing the accessibility of broadband service in the state to the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity. Existing law requires the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy to oversee the acquisition and management of contracts for the development and construction of a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to provide an opportunity for last-mile providers, anchor institutions, and tribal entities to connect to, and interconnect with other networks and other appropriate connections to, the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to facilitate high-speed broadband service. This bill would require the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity, on and after July 1, 2028, to assume the above-described duties. The Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 establishes a procedure for the issuance of state franchises for the provision of video service, defined to include cable service and open-video systems, administered by the PUC. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2028, transfer the administration of that act to the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity. Existing law requires the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy, with a third-party administrator, to develop and construct a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network that prioritizes last-mile connections to unserved and underserved areas and locations. Existing law requires the office and third-party administrator to work directly with last-mile project grant awardees to ensure that network segments, including prioritized stand-alone Department of Transportation construction projects, support last-mile connections, and requires the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy and the third-party administrator, to the extent feasible, to minimize disruption due to excavations, as provided. This bill would repeal the above-described provisions. This bill would make conforming changes.
