Law / United States / 
California
Bolstering Online Transparency Act (SB 1001)
Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Sections 17940 to 17943
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since 1 July 2019.
An AI transparency rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 14 August 2026.
What it requires
- Clearly and conspicuously disclose that the user is interacting with a bot, which is the statute's safe harbor
- The prohibition reaches using a bot to mislead a Californian about its artificial identity in order to incentivize a commercial transaction or influence a vote
What it reaches
How the hook was established
express
What makes it apply
User location
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The chapter prohibits using an undisclosed bot to mislead a person and requires disclosure at the point of the interaction to claim the safe harbor. It states no duty to create, keep, or produce on demand any record of that disclosure or of the interaction itself.
- Kind
- None
- As of
- 21 September 2026
Who checks it
Audit expectation
none
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Makes it unlawful to use a bot to communicate with a person in California with intent to mislead them about the bot's artificial identity, for the purpose of deceiving them to incentivize a commercial transaction or influence a vote. A safe harbor applies where the bot operator clearly and conspicuously discloses that the user is interacting with a bot.
No enacted amendment, repeal, or litigation affecting this statute was found; AB 410 (2025-2026 session), which would add AI-related definitions and tighten the disclosure duty to require upfront disclosure at first contact, was held under submission in the Senate Appropriations Committee as of 29 August 2025 and carried over to the 2026 session with no further enactment confirmed.
When LexLint raises it
deploys_chatbotautomated_outreach
Read the law
official California Legislative Information (leginfo) chaptered bill text
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.