California AB 1008 (CCPA: personal information in AI systems)

Binding law — in force AI-adjacent law

CCPA deletion and right-to-know requests reach AI systems that can output the consumer's personal information (California AB 1008)

Cal. Civ. Code 1798.140(v)(4) · official text · In force: applies since 1 Jan 2025 · California (US-CA)

Since 2025-01-01, CCPA personal information can exist in abstract digital formats, including compressed or encrypted files, metadata, or artificial intelligence systems that are capable of outputting personal information (Cal. Civ. Code 1798.140(v)(4), added by AB 1008, Stats. 2024, ch. 802). A business that receives a verifiable consumer request to delete must delete the consumer's personal information from its records, including those formats, and notify its service providers, contractors and the third parties it sold or shared it with (1798.105(a), (c)), subject to the exceptions of 1798.105(d); a request to know reaches the specific pieces of personal information collected about the consumer in the same formats (1798.110(a)-(b)). Detect deletion handlers that skip embeddings, vector stores, chat history, agent memory and provider-held files.

Who it applies to

• Duty falls on: controller, processor
• CCPA businesses (1798.140(d)) holding California consumers' personal information in AI systems capable of outputting it (models, embeddings, vector stores, agent memory, chat logs), and their service providers and contractors. In force since 2025-01-01 (AB 1008; the rights themselves since 2023-01-01). The CCPA's general exemptions (1798.145, 1798.146) are not captured, and whether information memorised in model weights must be removed from the model itself is for counsel.
• Not covered:
  • Deletion is not required where keeping the information is reasonably necessary to complete the transaction or perform a contract, for security and integrity, to debug, to exercise free speech or another legal right, to comply with CalECPA, for qualifying research with informed consent, for solely internal uses reasonably aligned with the consumer's expectations, or to comply with a legal obligation (1798.105(d)(1)-(8))
  • Publicly available information, lawfully obtained truthful information of public concern, and deidentified or aggregate consumer information are not personal information (1798.140(v)(2)-(3))
  • A deletion notice to service providers, contractors and third parties is not required where it proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort (1798.105(c)(1))
• Whether it applies depends on facts outside the code; a person has to decide.

@app.delete('/account')
def delete_account(user=Depends(current_user)):
    db.users.delete(user.id)
    return {'status': 'deleted'}

@app.delete('/account')
def delete_account(user=Depends(current_user)):
    db.users.delete(user.id)
    collection.delete(where={'user_id': user.id})          # Chroma embeddings
    db.chat_messages.delete_for_user(user.id)              # conversation history
    for f in db.provider_files.for_user(user.id):
        client.files.delete(f.file_id)                      # files stored with OpenAI
    for c in db.provider_conversations.for_user(user.id):
        client.conversations.delete(c.conversation_id)
    erasure_log.record(user.id, stores=['chroma', 'chat', 'openai_files', 'openai_conversations'])
    return {'status': 'deleted'}

Rule id ca-ab1008.consumer-requests-reach-ai-systems · review status: primary source derived