AB 883 — California Public Records Act: personal information of elected and appointed officials
Status & timeline
- Introduced: February 19, 2025 (Asm. Lowenthal).
- Amendments: Read and amended March 24, 2025; re-referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee.
- Committee: Set for first hearing April 9, 2025 — hearing canceled at author's request.
- Current status: In committee.
Purpose / intent
- To broaden and modernize privacy protections for elected and appointed officials (and certain family members who reside with them) by prohibiting disclosure, sale, or public dissemination of a wider class of personal data (“protected information”), and to expand the existing criminal and civil restrictions that apply when such information is used to threaten or cause physical harm.
Key definitions added (Section 7928.201)
- “Protected information” includes: residential address, telephone number, social security number, driver’s license or state ID number, passport number, license plate and vehicle registration information, and precise geolocation data (per Civil Code definition).
- “Publicly post” / “publicly display”: intentionally make available to the general public.
- “Sell”: broadly defined to include selling, renting, disclosing, transferring, or otherwise making personal information available to third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration.
- “Verifiable consumer request”: same meaning as in Civil Code §1798.140(ak).
Major substantive provisions
- State and local agencies may not publicly post or publicly display protected information of any elected or appointed official on the internet without the official’s written permission. (Existing narrow language referencing specific items is replaced with “protected information.”) Exemption preserved for legally required notices/publications.
- It is a misdemeanor for a person to knowingly publicly post or publicly display protected information of an elected or appointed official (or the official’s residing spouse/child) with intent to cause imminent great bodily harm or to threaten imminent great bodily harm. If the posting leads to bodily injury, it may be charged as a misdemeanor or felony.
- Expands prohibitions on private parties (persons, businesses, associations): they may not sell, publicly post, or publicly display protected information of an official if the official has made a written demand (now expanded to also include a “verifiable consumer request”) to not disclose that information.
- Removes or reduces reliance on internet-only language in some provisions so protections can apply beyond online-only disclosure (definitions broaden “publicly post/display”).
Scope, affected parties, and impact
- Beneficiaries: elected and appointed officials in California and immediate family members who reside with the official (for specified provisions).
- Entities affected: state and local agencies (new duties), private individuals, media outlets, data brokers, vendors, businesses and associations that collect, sell, or publish personal data.
- Legal consequences: expansion of criminal liability for disclosure intended to cause harm; civil enforcement mechanisms referenced in digest. Because the bill adds duties for local agencies and expands criminal provisions, it is identified as a state‑mandated local program; reimbursement language is included (no reimbursement required for certain mandates; other mandates subject to Commission on State Mandates review).
Constitutional / procedural findings
- The bill includes legislative findings that it is consistent with constitutional requirements governing access to public records and public meetings and that any limitation on access is justified by the interest protected.
Takeaway
- AB 883 replaces narrow home-address/telephone protections with a broader “protected information” regime, extends protections to certain co-resident family members, expands prohibitions to selling as well as posting/displaying, broadens the medium beyond the internet in several places, and increases duties on agencies and potential criminal liability for harmful disclosures.
