Calif. Gov. vetoes attempt to require new privacy option in browsers and OSes

Enlarge / California Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference in San Francisco on September 19, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | Anadolu )

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required makers of web browsers and mobile operating systems to let consumers send opt-out preference signals that could limit businesses’ use of personal information.

The bill approved by the State Legislature last month would have required an opt-out signal “that communicates the consumer’s choice to opt out of the sale and sharing of the consumer’s personal information or to limit the use of the consumer’s sensitive personal information.” It would have made it illegal for a business to offer a web browser or mobile operating system without a setting that lets consumers “send an opt-out preference signal to businesses with which the consumer interacts.”

In a veto message sent to the Legislature Friday, Newsom said he would not sign the bill. Newsom wrote that he shares the “desire to enhance consumer privacy,” noting that he previously signed a bill “requir[ing] the California Privacy Protection Agency to establish an accessible deletion mechanism allowing consumers to request that data brokers delete all of their personal information.”