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Bill

A 11292

Relates to prohibiting the use of stealth crawlers

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Alex Bores

Prohibits stealth crawlers from harming New York covered news sources and requires disclosure of identity and purpose, with penalties and enforcement.

REPORTED REFERRED TO CODES
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Bill Summary · A 11292

Overview

Bill A. 11292 (2025-2026, New York) adds a new article to the General Business Law—the New York Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act. The measure seeks to regulate and prohibit the use of stealth crawlers that access covered news sources in a manner that could cause operational or economic harm, while creating enforcement mechanisms and targeted disclosures.

Purpose and intent

  • Prohibit deployment of stealth crawlers against covered news sources in New York.
  • Provide a framework for disclosure by crawlers and a process for enforcement, including potential civil penalties.
  • Protect the operations, economics, and integrity of covered news sources (newsrooms and journalism providers) from covert or disruptive automated scraping.

Key provisions

Definitions (Article 48, § 1751)

  • Crawler: Software that retrieves, scans, indexes, scrapes, or accesses a website or internet source (e.g., online crawlers, spiders, bots, AI agents, etc.).
  • Covered news source: A publication or service that:
    • Performs a public-information function akin to journalism.
    • Spends substantial resources to create and distribute original content.
    • Publishes new or updated content at least monthly and has error-correction processes.
    • Has at least 1,000 monthly active viewers/listeners/subscribers in New York.
  • Journalism provider: Owner(s) of one or more covered news sources.
  • Operator: Any individual or organization that runs or benefits from a crawler.
  • Stealth crawler: A crawler that does not comply with disclosure requirements (Section 1752).

Disclosure requirement (§ 1752)

  • A crawler accessing a covered news source must disclose its identity and purpose before or at the time of access, including:
    • A valid, accurate user-agent string identifying the software product, version, and company.
    • The specific nature and purpose of the crawler, including all uses and purposes for the content, in a format accessible to the journalism provider.

Prohibition (§ 1753)

  • It is unlawful for an operator to deploy a stealth crawler in a way that damages, impairs, burdens, or economically harms a covered news source.

Enforcement (§ 1754)

  • The Attorney General may file suit to enjoin unlawful acts and seek civil penalties up to $15,000 per day per violation.
  • If the court finds a violation, it need not require proof of actual injury.
  • Preventive relief may be granted under applicable civil procedure rules.
  • Access-related subpoenas: Journalism providers may request subpoenas to obtain identifying information about alleged violators from service providers prior to filing suit, with provisions for:
    • Issuance of subpoenas to identify violators.
    • Preservation of relevant evidence by the service provider.

Severability (§ 1755)

  • If any part is found invalid, the remainder remains in effect.

Effective date

  • The act takes effect 90 days after becoming law.

Who is affected

  • Covered news sources meeting the defined criteria (journalism providers with active readership in NY).
  • Operators of crawlers that access these sources, including third-party developers and entities deploying automation.
  • Service providers (e.g., ISPs, data hosting, or other intermediaries) that could be compelled to disclose information about violators through subpoenas.

Timeline and procedural notes

  • Introduced May 8, 2026; referred to Science and Technology, later to Codes.
  • If enacted, the act would take effect 90 days after becoming law.
  • Provides a potential pre-suit identification mechanism via subpoenas, expediting enforcement.

Practical impact and considerations

  • Encourages transparency from crawlers operating against covered news sources.
  • Creates a potential financial deterrent for stealth crawling activities (up to $15k per day per violation).
  • May impact data-collection practices by researchers, aggregators, and AI developers that target New York-based journalism with automated access—particularly if those activities could be construed as stealth crawling.
  • Likely requires crawlers and platforms to implement or disclose identifiable user-agent strings and crawler purposes to NY journalism providers.

If you’d like, I can provide a side-by-side comparison with existing stealth-crawling/privacy laws or outline potential compliance steps for news organizations and developers.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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