Law / United States / 
New York
S9934A, New York Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act
N.Y. S. 9934-A (2025-2026), adding N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law art. 48
Finalized, with one agreed text, dated , as of .
A crawl signals rule binding private bodies.
As of .
Where it has got to
The text described here is Senate print S9934-A, the text both houses passed. That print is S9934A, published .
Locally, this stage is passed both houses, no delivery to the Governor recorded.
The stage above is recorded at nyassembly.gov.
The Senate passed S9934-A on and the Assembly substituted its companion A11292 for it and passed it on . In New York a bill passed by both houses reaches the Governor only when it is delivered, which can be months later; no delivery, signature or veto is recorded on the docket.
What it requires
- This bill has not been enacted; what follows is what it would require if signed in this form.
- If you operate a crawler that accesses a covered news source, identify it with a valid and accurate user-agent string that states the software product, its version, and the company behind it.
- Disclose the specific nature and purpose of the crawler, including every use the news source's content could be put to, at or before the time you request access and in a format the journalism provider can access.
- Do not deploy a crawler that omits these disclosures in a manner that would damage, impair, or burden the operation of a covered news source or otherwise cause it economic harm.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
What this law does
Senator Gianaris introduced the bill on . The Senate passed it on . The Assembly passed it on . As passed, it would add Article 48 to the General Business Law. A crawler that accesses a covered news source would have to disclose its identity and purpose at or before access. The disclosure would include identifying the crawler through a valid and accurate user-agent string.
It would be a violation for an operator to deploy a stealth crawler, meaning one that does not make that disclosure, in a manner that would damage, impair, or burden the operation of a covered news source or otherwise cause it economic harm. A covered news source is one with at least one thousand monthly active viewers, listeners, users, or subscribers in New York, among other conditions.
The Attorney General could sue to enjoin the practice and seek civil penalties of up to $15,000 per day for each violation. A journalism provider could ask a court for a pre-action subpoena to a service provider to identify an alleged violator. The act would take effect on the ninetieth day after it becomes law.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.