Calif. Lawmakers Refine Bills on Opt-Out and Age-Verification Signals
California legislators worked up to the wire to make a Sept. 5 deadline for amendments, revising several bills on privacy and AI that are nearing final votes. The legislature on Friday posted fresh amendments on legislation related to universal opt-out preference signals, kids online safety and automated decisions, among other subjects. The legislative deadline to pass bills is this Friday.
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Under an amended version of AB-566, web browser companies that put universal opt-out preference signal functionality into their browsers would gain immunity from liability in California for violations by businesses receiving the signals.
In addition, legislators added a delayed effective date of Jan. 1, 2027, for the proposed requirement for browsers to support universal opt-out signals. The California legislature posted the amended bill on Friday.
“A business that develops or maintains a browser that includes a functionality that enables the browser to send an opt-out preference signal pursuant to this section shall not be liable for a violation of this title by a business that receives the opt-out preference signal,” says the amended AB-566, which awaits a vote on the Senate floor that’s expected this week.
As expected, the amendment also removed a requirement that “browser engines” must include a universal opt-out function, so the bill would now only cover browsers themselves (see 2507020016). The highly watched AB-566 is endorsed by the California Privacy Protection Agency.
Age-Verification Signals Bill Revised
Separately, California legislators revised up age bracket data that would have to be transmitted under a kids online safety bill. The legislature posted an amended version of AB-1043 on Friday.
AB-1043 would require manufacturers to develop a way to have device owners enter the user’s birthdate or age, so that a digital signal about the user’s age bracket could be sent to app developers through an application programming interface.
The author revised the age brackets that would be required to be transmitted so that the lowest bracket would now indicate if a user is younger than 13. That means companies no longer would have to indicate, as was the case previously, if a user is younger than five or between five and 10. The revised brackets are (1) under 13, (2) 13-16, (3) 16-18 and (4) at least 18.
Also, the amendment added that a “developer shall not willfully disregard internal clear and convincing information otherwise available to the developer that indicates that a user’s age is different than the age bracket data indicated by a signal provided by an operating system provider or a covered application store.” The revised bill adds, “If a developer has internal clear and convincing information that a user’s age is different than the age indicated by a signal received pursuant to this title, the developer shall use that information as the primary indicator of the user’s age.”
Among other changes, the amended bill adds exemptions for broadband internet access services, telecom services and the “delivery or use of a physical product.” And it clarifies that the measure wouldn’t “impose liability on an operating system provider, a covered application store, or a developer that arises from the use of a device or application by a person who is not the user to whom a signal pertains.” Also, the bill’s effective date was updated to Jan. 1, 2027.
Meanwhile, Common Sense and other kids' advocacy groups supported another child safety bill (AB-1064), related to AI chatbots, in a letter to California senators on Monday. Vermont Rep. Monique Priestley (D) also signed the letter, which said that the bill would make "critical regulations for the development and use of artificial intelligence systems that interact with children."
AB-1043 and AB-1064 await Senate floor votes.
ADS Bill Adds Worker Right After Scrapping Another
Over in the Assembly, legislators amended -- for the second time in a week -- a bill about employers' use of automated decision systems (ADS).
After a previous amendment removed an originally proposed workers’ right to appeal their employers’ automated decisions (see 2509030010), legislators amended SB-7 again on Friday to add a right to request information. The bill awaits an Assembly floor vote.
“A worker shall have the right to request, and an employer shall provide, a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker’s own data primarily used by an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision,” adds the latest amendment to SB-7. “A worker is limited to one request every 12 months for a copy of their own data used by an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision.”
“For purposes of safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers, workers, and individuals, when an employer is required to provide worker data pursuant to this part, that worker data shall be provided in a manner that anonymizes the customer’s, other worker’s, or individual’s personal information,” it adds.
Also, the amended bill would clarify that it doesn’t prohibit employers from complying with regulatory or contractual requirements when providing services to the federal government.
The legislature additionally posted amendments on Friday to AB-45 on reproductive privacy, AB-56 on social media warning labels, AB-1018 on algorithmic discrimination, SB-53 on frontier AI and SB-259 on data-driven pricing. Amendments to several other bills appeared earlier last week (see 2509050003).