California 2025 legislative wrap-up: More privacy and first-of-its kind AI laws adopted

The California 2025-2026 legislative session was adjourned for 2025, with 12 Oct. 2025 marking the final day for Governor Gavin Newsom to sign or veto bills. Lawmakers introduced at least 33 bills related to privacy and AI and passed 16 of them. Newsom signed four privacy bills and seven artificial intelligence bills into law, while vetoing five others.    

During the first half of the current session, California continued to follow some of the privacy trends from 2023 and 2024. The state focused on amending the California Consumer Privacy Act, implementing protections for children's privacy and age verification, reinforcing protections for location data privacy and adding new requirements for data brokers. Lawmakers prioritized transparency as they adopted the first frontier AI law and companion chatbots legislation in the country. They also introduced disclosure requirements for service providers to consumers, reflecting the legislature's specific interest in making other areas of the law AI-compatible.

Overall, the bills passed in 2025 further reinforce California as a leader in privacy and AI regulation and may foreshadow similar trends in lawmaking in other states. The updated California Privacy and AI Legislation Tracker presents a comprehensive list of bills that have become law as well as those that are still in the works for the remainder of the 2025-2026 legislative session.

New privacy requirements in California