The facts
On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 1542, a bill that would have made it illegal to sell or share Californians' most sensitive personal data: precise geolocation down to about 1,850 feet, health and medical data, biometric identifiers, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, financial account details, immigration status, and union membership. The bill was introduced in January by Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat. The Senate passed it 31 to 4 on August 28 and the Assembly 44 to 19 on August 30, and the board of the California Privacy Protection Agency had formally endorsed it.
Newsom's veto message framed the rejection as a defense of consumer choice. He wrote that "a categorical ban on sharing that information is a step too far" and worried about "unintended consequences if consumers are removed entirely from the decision process." The reporting notes that rationale tracks closely with arguments made by a coalition of nearly 20 businesses that lobbied against the bill, including the California Chamber of Commerce, the Software and Information Industry Association, the Network Advertising Initiative, and the Association of National Advertisers.
Consumer Reports' Justin Brookman had backed the bill, saying companies should use personal information like geolocation to deliver services, "not to secretly monetize it through data brokers." Senior policy analyst Matt Schwartz called the veto "a gift to data brokers, scammers, and spammy marketers," warning it leads to "stalking, identity theft, and predatory targeting" among other harms.
The practical stakes are not abstract. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has documented that ICE and CBP regularly purchase precise location data, social media information, and other personal data from commercial data brokers, the same market AB 1542 would have prohibited from selling it. Under the opt-out system Newsom preserved, the only protection is filing individual opt-out requests with each data broker; California has more than 600 registered data brokers, and the CPPA itself acknowledges most people never take that step.
The veto leaves California behind at least five states with stronger bans now in force or taking effect: Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Oregon, and Connecticut. Ten days before the veto, Newsom signed Executive Order N-9-26 directing California to develop an AI "kill switch" for halting frontier AI systems in emergencies, and he had signed SB 813 and AB 1405 creating an AI auditor registry. On the same day he vetoed AB 1542, he signed SB 923, the Expanding Privacy Rights Act, which extends deletion rights but stops short of prohibiting any data sale.
Our take
Gavin Newsom just proved he is the kind of dickhead who signs an AI kill switch for imaginary robot apocalypses but vetoes the one law that would stop real data brokers from selling Californians' precise location down to 1850 feet straight to ICE and CBP. The Senate and Assembly passed AB 1542 with huge margins and the California Privacy Protection Agency board endorsed it, yet this prick reached for the veto pen and called it consumer choice.
His message whines about a categorical ban being a step too far and frets over unintended consequences if consumers are removed from the decision process. The decision process he protects is you personally emailing or filing paperwork with more than 600 registered data brokers one by one, a system his own agency admits almost nobody ever uses. That is not choice. That is a deliberate shitshow designed to keep the market open.
Nearly twenty business groups including the California Chamber of Commerce and the Association of National Advertisers lobbied against the bill and Newsom's talking points track their arguments exactly. The data broker industry did not even need to pay for this veto. The governor just handed it over for free while claiming to defend your rights.
Consumer Reports warned the veto is a gift to data brokers, scammers and spammy marketers that enables stalking, identity theft and predatory targeting. EPIC documented that ICE and CBP already buy this exact location and social media data from the same brokers. Under the system Newsom preserved, the only barrier is those individual opt-out requests that almost never happen.
California now trails Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Oregon and Connecticut on actual privacy protections. The same day he killed the sales ban he signed a weaker deletion-rights bill. Ten days earlier he was busy building guardrails for future AI threats while leaving the current surveillance machine untouched. Newsom did not defend consumers. He defended the grift and mailed the receipt to every broker in the state.
