Existing law establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) to enforce various laws protecting the privacy of individuals. If a business knowingly collects and sells to third parties the personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship, existing law requires the business to register with the CPPA as a data broker, except as specified. Existing law requires the CPPA to establish an accessible deletion mechanism that allows a consumer to request that every data broker delete any personal information related to that consumer held by the data broker or associated service provider or contractor, as prescribed. Existing law requires, beginning August 1, 2026, a data broker to access that deletion mechanism at least once every 45 days and, among other things, process all deletion requests and delete all personal information related to the consumers making the requests, as specified. This bill would change the above-described 45-day period to a 30-day period and make conforming changes. This bill would require the Secretary of State, certain local government officials, the Judicial Council, and the State Bar of California to notify any state elected official, local elected official, or judge, as applicable, that the person may submit a request to delete that person's personal information through the above-described accessible deletion mechanism, as prescribed. By imposing additional duties on local government officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would authorize the Attorney General, a county counsel, or a city attorney to bring a civil action, on behalf of an elected official or judge, against a data broker who violates certain personal information deletion requirements, as prescribed. This bill would make its provisions relating to the notice and enforcement of requests for deletion of personal information of elected officials and judges operative on July 1, 2027. 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.
Existing law allows an individual taxpayer to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of specified funds and accounts, including, among others, to the Native California Wildlife Rehabilitation Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2033, allow an individual to designate on their tax return that a specified amount in excess of their tax liability be transferred to the continuously appropriated California Sea Otter Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, which would be created by this bill. The bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the tax return form to include a space for the designation of contributions to the fund. By establishing a new continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would also require the fund to appear on the personal income tax return for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2033. The bill would require that the above provisions remain operative only until December 1, 2033, and be repealed as of that date. However, the bill would provide for an earlier repeal if the Franchise Tax Board determines that the amount of contributions estimated to be received during the 2nd and later calendar years after its first appearance on a return will not at least equal the minimum contribution amount, in which case these provisions would be repealed on December 1 of that year. The bill would require, notwithstanding the repeal of the bill's provisions, that any contribution amounts designated prior to the repeal of the bill's provisions be transferred and disbursed in accordance with those provisions, as specified.
Under existing tax law, once a tax liability becomes due and payable, as defined, a statutory lien arises for that amount upon all real and personal property belonging to that taxpayer. Existing law establishes a statute of limitations on collections of those liabilities to limit the collection period to 20 years beginning from the date that the latest tax liability for a taxable year or the date any other liability that is not associated with a taxable year becomes due and payable, and thereafter extinguishes that liability. Existing law defines "tax liability" as a liability imposed under the Personal Income Tax Law, the Corporation Tax Law, or the laws related to the administration of franchise and income tax laws, including any additions to tax, interest, penalties, fees, and any other amounts relating to the imposed liability. This bill would redefine "tax liability" to exclude interest, penalties, costs, or fees, except a specified fee on limited liability companies, relating to the assessment of tax, any other amounts relating to the imposed liability, and any additions to tax. The bill would require the collection period for interest, penalties, costs, or fees that may accrue with a particular tax liability to lapse at the same time as the related tax liability.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission to develop, implement, and administer a program to advance universal service by providing discounted rates to qualifying schools maintaining kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, community colleges, libraries, hospitals, health clinics, and community organizations. This bill would require that the discounted rates also be provided to qualifying schools, school districts, and county offices of education serving preschools, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, public libraries and public library systems, rather than libraries, and noninstructional facilities operated or contracted by qualifying schools, school districts, county offices of education, community colleges, community college districts, public libraries, and public library systems, including their associated data centers or administrative offices, as provided. Existing law authorizes all customers eligible to receive discounts for telecommunications services under the federal Universal Service E-rate program to also apply for discounts on telecommunications services provided through the California Teleconnect Fund Administrative Committee Fund program. Existing law requires the commission to first apply an E-rate discount if the customer, in the determination of the commission, meets the requirements for an E-rate discount, as provided. This bill would instead require the service provider to first apply an E-rate discount, as determined by the commission, if the customer, in the determination of the commission, meets the requirements for an E-rate discount, except as provided. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires a social media platform to take certain actions with respect to child sexual abuse material on the social media platform, including requiring the platform to provide, in a mechanism that is reasonably accessible to users, a means for a user who is a California resident to report material to the platform that the user reasonably believes meets certain criteria, including that the reported material is child sexual abuse material and that the reporting user is depicted in the material. Existing law also requires the social media platform to collect information reasonably sufficient to enable the platform to contact, as specified, a reporting user. Existing law defines child sexual abuse material for these purposes to include obscene matter that depicts a minor personally engaging in, or personally simulating, sexual conduct. This bill would revise the definition of child sexual abuse material to instead include an intimate visual depiction, as defined, of an identifiable individual who is a minor. The bill would additionally require the above-described mechanism to be clear and conspicuous, as defined, and would delete the requirement that the reporting user be depicted in the material. The bill would require a social media platform to, among other things, ensure review by a natural person if there is not an established or known hash match to child sexual abuse material with respect to the reported material and the reported material is not otherwise blocked. The bill would require a social media platform to restore availability or functionality of the reporting mechanism if the reporting mechanism is unavailable or nonfunctional. Existing law makes a noncomplying social media company liable to a reporting user for actual damages and statutory damages, as specified. This bill would instead make a social media company liable to a depicted individual, as defined, for actual and statutory damages, as provided. The bill would also impose specified civil penalties on a noncomplying company to be collected in a civil action by certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General. Existing law establishes the Survivor Support Fund within the state treasury and makes moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for grants by the California Victim Compensation Board to community-based organizations that provide direct services to vulnerable individuals in areas with a high concentration of sex trafficking. This bill would require any penalty collected in a civil action by the Attorney General under these provisions to be deposited into the Survivor Support Fund. Existing law prohibits a social media platform from knowingly facilitating, aiding, or abetting commercial sexual exploitation, as defined. Existing law deems a social media platform to have knowledge for the purposes of this prohibition if material was reported to the social media platform using the reporting mechanism for 4 consecutive months, as provided. Existing law exempts a social media platform from being deemed in violation of this prohibition if it instituted a specified audit program and provided to each member of its board of directors a true and correct copy of each audit, as prescribed. This bill would remove the requirement that material was reported for 4 consecutive months to deem a social media platform to have knowledge for the purposes of the above-described prohibition. The bill would, in order to be exempt from that prohibition, require the social media platform to also submit the audit to the Attorney General, and if requested, to certain other public officials. The bill would provide that an audit submitted as described above is confidential and shall be exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act. This bill would declare its provisions severable. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, grants a consumer various rights with respect to personal information that is collected or sold by a business, as defined, including the right to direct a business that sells or shares personal information about the consumer to third parties not to sell or share the consumer's personal information, as specified. Existing law, beginning January 1, 2027, prohibits a business from developing or maintaining a browser, as defined, that does not include functionality configurable by a consumer that enables the browser to send an opt-out preference signal, as defined, to businesses with which the consumer interacts through the browser, as prescribed. This bill would prohibit an operating system or an application from undoing a user's affirmative configuration of a user's privacy setting without the user's consent, except as specified. The bill would define "privacy setting" to mean any user-configurable option within an application's privacy, or similarly labeled, menu that governs the application's collection, use, sharing, disclosure, retention, or processing of the user's personal information.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, and the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California as the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in the state. This bill would require the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and would request the University of California, to (1) as specified, jointly convene and participate in an intersegmental working group to develop and present recommendations for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) system procurement standards and training, which the bill would require to be submitted on or before January 1, 2028, (2) provide the training to students, faculty, or staff, as applicable, (3) review the training developed by the working group at least once per academic year, update the training as necessary, and maintain records of completed trainings for each student, faculty member, and staff member who receives a training, as provided, and (4) within 60 days following the execution of a systemwide contract for a GenAI system and until procurement standards are adopted, submit a written report to the Legislature and certain legislative policy committees with a description of, among other things, the process used in evaluating and selecting the GenAI system, as provided.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, exempt a portable solar generation device, as defined, from all interconnection requirements imposed by state law, the commission, electrical corporation rules, or local publicly owned electric utility rules, as specified. The bill would, until January 1, 2030, prohibit an electrical corporation or a local publicly owned electric utility from requiring a customer using a portable solar generation device to take specified actions, including, among other things, paying any fee or charge related to the device or the electricity the device feeds into a building's electrical system. The bill would, until January 1, 2030, authorize an electrical corporation or a local publicly owned electric utility to require a customer using a portable solar generation device to notify the electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility, using a simple online registration form, of the address, make, model, and size of the portable solar generation device, as provided. Beginning January 1, 2030, the bill would prohibit the sale of a portable photovoltaic energy generation device that is designed to be connected to and disconnected from a building's electrical system through a receptacle and does not meet the definition of a portable solar generation device, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Additionally, by imposing new duties on local publicly owned electric utilities, the 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.
The Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL) generally regulates digital financial asset business activity, including by prohibiting a covered person from taking certain actions with digital financial assets if that asset is a stablecoin, as defined and prescribed. The DFAL requires, among other charges, an applicant for a license to include a nonrefundable fee with an application, as specified. This bill would authorize the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation to adopt regulations to allow specified payments required under the DFAL to be made with stablecoins, as specified. This bill would become operative on July 1, 2027, and sunset its provisions on January 1, 2032.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to appoint a chief internal auditor who holds office at the pleasure of the commission. Existing law makes the chief internal auditor responsible for the oversight of the internal audit unit. Existing law requires the chief internal auditor to plan, initiate, and perform audits of key financial, management, operational, and information technology functions within the commission to improve accountability and transparency to executive and state management, and to report their findings and recommendations directly to an audit subcommittee of the commission. This bill would instead require the Governor to appoint an Inspector General, subject to Senate confirmation, to be responsible for the oversight of the internal audit unit and would instead require the Inspector General to plan, initiate, and perform audits of key financial, management, operational, and information technology functions within the commission to improve accountability and transparency to executive and state management. The bill would also require the Inspector General to ensure, among other things, that the commission administers funds and programs in a prescribed manner, fulfills mandated requirements, develops an annual audit plan, administers an effective enterprise risk management program, and monitors reporting compliance. The bill would provide for the appointment and removal of the Inspector General, as specified. The bill would authorize the Inspector General to access and examine all records, files, documents, accounts, reports, correspondence, or other property of the commission and public utilities, and would require other entities that are regulated by the commission and participate in programs administered by the commission, upon request of the Inspector General, to provide or make available to the Inspector General for examination all relevant records, files, documents, accounts, reports, correspondence, or other property pertaining to participation in those programs, as specified. The bill would require the Inspector General to report specified information to the Governor and the Legislature, as provided.
