Law / United States / 
South Carolina
Age-Appropriate Design Code, sensitive personal data and biometric data
S.C. Code Ann. sec. 39-80-10(18) (Act No. 96 of 2026, H. 3431)
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 8 months, effective 5 February 2026.
A sensitive categories rule binding private bodies.
As of 28 August 2026.
What it requires
- Treat biometric data processed to uniquely identify a minor as sensitive personal data requiring this chapter's heightened, minor-protective design duties.
- Do not assume a recording-derived faceprint or voiceprint is excluded from 'biometric data' here. The chapter never defines the term, so no exclusion or clawback can be confirmed either way from the statutory text.
- Do not treat a minor's biometric data collected without the minor's knowledge as publicly available data, even if drawn from an otherwise public source.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Chapter 80 defines sensitive personal data to include a Social Security number, precise geolocation, racial or ethnic origin, citizenship or immigration status, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership, the contents of an individual's mail, email, or text messages, genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual, and health data.
'Biometric data' itself is never defined anywhere in the 30,353-character enacted text; the term appears exactly twice, once in this sensitive-data list and once in the publicly-available-data carve-out below, with no accompanying definitional entry among the chapter's twenty defined terms.
Whether the term excludes an identifier derived from a photograph, video, or audio recording therefore cannot be determined from the statutory text; there is no definitional clause to read as imposing or narrowing such an exclusion.
A narrower, separate carve-out excludes only 'biometric data collected by a covered online service about a minor without the minor's knowledge' from the chapter's definition of publicly available data, which does not address an adult's biometric data, or a knowingly collected minor's, drawn from a public recording.
When LexLint raises it
processes_biometricscrawls_webtrains_modelshigh_risk_decisions
Read the law
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.