California is one of the nation’s few fulltime state legislatures That means advocates have to track and speak up on hundreds of bills that move through the legislative process on a strict schedule between January and August every year The legislature has been adjourned for a month and wont be back until August So its a good time to take stock and share what weve been up to in Sacramento

EFF has been tracking nearly 100 bills this session in California alone They cover a wide array of privacy free speech and innovation issues including bills that cover what standards Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems should meet before being used by state agencies how AI and copyright interact police use of surveillance and a lot of privacy questions While the session isnt over yet we have already logged a significant victory by helping stop SB1076 by Senator Scott Wilk (Lancaster) This bill would have weakened the California Delete Act (SB 362) which we fought hard to pass last yearnbsp

Under SB 362 The Delete Act made it easier for anyone to exert greater control over their privacy under Californias Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) The law created a oneclick “delete” button in the states data broker registry allowing Californians to request the removal of their personal information held by data brokers registered in California It built on the states existing data broker registry law to expand the information data brokers are required to disclose about data they collect on consumers It also added strong enforcement mechanisms to ensure that data brokers comply with these reporting requirements

SB 1076 would have undermined the Delete Act’s aim to provide consumers with an easy “oneclick” button It also would have opened loopholes in the law for data brokers to duck compliance This would have hurt consumer rights and undone oversight on an opaque ecosystem of entities that collect then sell personal information they’ve amassed on individuals SB 1076s proponents which included data brokers and advertisers argued that the Delete Act is too burdensome and makes it impossible for consumers to exercise their privacy rights under Californias privacy laws In truth SB 1076 would have aided fraudsters or credit abusers to misuse your personal information The existing guardrails and protections under the Delete Act are some of the strongest in empowering vulnerable Californians to exercise their privacy rights under CCPA and were proud to have protected it

Of course there are still a lot of bills Let’s dive into six bills were paying close attention to right now to give you a taste of whats cooking in Sacramento

AB 3080 EFF opposes this bill by State Assemblymember Juan Alanis (Modesto) It would create powerful incentives for socalled “pornographic internet websites” to use ageverification mechanisms The bill is not clear on what exactly counts as “sexually explicit content” Without clear guidelines this bill will further harm the ability of all youthparticularly LGBTQ youthto access legitimate content online Different versions of bills requiring age verification have appeared in more than a dozen states An Indiana law similar to AB 3080 was preliminarily enjoinedtemporarily halted after a judge ruled it was likely unconstitutional California should not enact this bill into law

SB 892 EFF supports this bill by State Senator Steve Padilla (Chula Vista) which would require the Department of Technology to establish safety privacy and nondiscrimination standards relating to AI services procured by the State and prohibit the state from entering into any contract for AI services unless the service provider meets the standards established This bill is a critical first step towards ensuring that any future investment in AI technology by the State of California to support the delivery of services is grounded in consumer protection

AB 3138 EFF opposes this bill by State Assemblymember Lori Wilson (Suisun City) which will turn stateissued digital license plates into surveillance trackers that record everywhere a car goes When a similar bill came up in 2022 several domestic violence LGBTQIA reproductive justice youth and privacy organizations negotiated to prohibit the use of GPS in passenger car digital license plates AB 3138 would no longer honor the agreement under AB 984 (2022) and reverse that negotiation

AB 1814 EFF opposes this bill from State Assemblymember Phil Ting (San Francisco) It is an attempt to sanction and expand the use of facial recognition software by police to “match” images from surveillance databases to possible suspects Those images can then be used to issue arrest warrants or probable searches The bill says merely that these matches cant be the sole reason for a warrant to be issued by a judgea standard that has already failed to stop false arrests in other states By codifying such a weak standard with the hope that “something is better than nothing” and expanding police access to state databases makes bill is worse than no regulation

SB 981 EFF opposes this bill from State Senator Aisha Wahab (Fremont) which would require online platforms to create a reporting mechanism for certain intimate materials and ensure that those materials cannot be viewed on the platform This reporting mechanism and the requirement to block and remove reported content will lead to overcensorship of protected speech If passed as written it would violate the First Amendment and run afoul of federal preemption

AB 1836 EFF opposes this bill by State Assemblymember Rebecca BauerKahan (San Ramon) It will create a broad new “digital replica” right of publicity for deceased personalities for the unauthorized production distribution or availability of their digital replica in an audiovisual work or sound recording If passed a deceased personality’s estate could use it to extract statutory damages of 10000 for the use of the dead person’s image or voice “in any manner related to the work performed by the deceased personality while living” an incredibly unclear standard that will invite years of litigation

Of course this isnt every bill that EFF is engaged on or even every bill we care about Over the coming months youll hear more from us about ways that Californians can help us tell lawmakers to be on the right side of digital rights issues