Law / United States / 
California
Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (unauthorized access, broader than the federal without-authorization test)
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 29 August 2026.
What it requires
- Do not continue accessing a California site, or circumvent a technical block, after the operator has sent a cease-and-desist notice (Facebook v. Power Ventures, 9th Cir. 2016; Craigslist v. 3Taps, N.D. Cal. 2013).
- Note that this statute's without permission standard has no threshold requirement that your initial access be unauthorized, unlike the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 502(c) criminalizes knowing access without permission, textually broader than the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)'s without authorization because it carries no threshold requirement that the initial access itself be unauthorized. Facebook v. Power Ventures (844 F.3d 1058, 9th Cir. 2016) held a scraper's originally-permitted access did not violate this section, but access became without permission once Facebook sent a cease-and-desist and IP-blocked the scraper and it continued anyway.
Craigslist v. 3Taps (964 F. Supp. 2d 1178, N.D. Cal. 2013) held a cease-and-desist letter plus an IP block are sufficient notice, so circumventing the block after notice states a claim under this section. The current section was added by Stats.
1987, ch. 1499 (a legislative-history research service confirms this against the annotated statutory history), but leginfo.legislature.ca.gov's own code page carries only the most recent amendment note, not the full history back to 1987, and no located session-law or secondary source pins the specific operative date, which turns on whether the 90-day constitutional waiting period from enactment ran past January 1, 1988 (in which case the section commenced January 1, 1989 instead). The commencement date is left unset rather than guessed between those two candidates.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
official text, California Legislative Information (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.