AB 2561: Operating systems and applications: privacy settings.

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 consumers 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 users affirmative configuration of a users privacy setting without the users consent, except as specified. The bill would define privacy setting to mean any user-configurable option within an applications privacy, or similarly labeled, menu that governs the applications collection, use, sharing, disclosure, retention, or processing of the users personal information.