California has passed a law extending the state’s Consumer Privacy Act to protect the privacy of a person’s brain data collected by neurotechnology companies (i.e. pretty much everyone in Silicon Valley).
Applications and technologies as diverse as mixed-reality headsets and meditation platforms can in some way record and collect the neural data of users and, until now, there are few legal guardrails to protect that data. Without the law, targeted advertising and digital manipulation efforts could eventually reach a whole new level of personalization. Both good and bad.
Our thoughts and feelings are now as recordable as a keystroke, so California has stepped in before that data could be widely monetized. The new measures, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, now protects “neural data” (a user’s brain activity and connected nerves that send signals to the rest of the body). To put that into perspective, this gives neural data the same protections as facial images, DNA, fingerprints, and other biometric data - all considered “personal sensitive information.”
That means California residents can request, delete, or correct info that has been collected and opt out from firms being able to sell or share it.
Now that a brain’s output is protected, it is now time to focus on input. California, and indeed the rest of the world, will now need to prepare for outlawing inception. Particularly as some companies are now, literally, putting technology into our brains. That makes protecting neural data more important than ever.