California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 690 into law on September 30, 2026, significantly reforming the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) by curtailing private rights of action related to website tracking technologies.

The new legislation restricts private enforcement of CIPA’s pen-register and trap-and-trace provision for conduct on websites and online and mobile applications. This change applies retroactively to claims filed on or after January 1, 2025, and reserves enforcement and investigations of these specific claims to the California Attorney General’s office.

Impact on Adult Industry Litigation

The adult entertainment industry has been directly affected by CIPA lawsuits. Consumers have filed actions against the parent companies of popular adult entertainment websites, including Pornhub.com (Aylo) and Bellesa. These lawsuits alleged that the use of commonly employed digital marketing software, such as Google Analytics, violated collective privacy rights under CIPA, leading to demands for compensation or settlement.

Corey Silverstein, an attorney representing adult industry clients, acknowledged the development. Silverstein stated that SB 690 is a welcome development for adult industry businesses facing costly litigation over website tracking technologies. He explained that it removes a specific category of claims—website and app claims under CIPA’s pen-register and trap-and-trace provision—from private plaintiffs’ hands, reserving enforcement for the California Attorney General. However, Silverstein also advised that businesses should understand the limits of this reform, noting that SB 690 does not eliminate other CIPA claims or provide blanket permission to track visitors. He emphasized that for adult platforms, protecting sensitive browsing information remains essential, recommending that businesses review existing litigation with counsel and continue evaluating tracking tools, consent practices, and third-party access to user data.

Lawrence Walters, another attorney in the adult industry, also praised the passage of SB 690. Walters stated that SB 690 ends the private lawsuit mill built on CIPA’s pen-register provision. He noted that adult sites and other online businesses have spent years litigating and settling claims they should have never faced, based on the use of ordinary analytics tools. Walters added that these claims now belong to the Attorney General, including many already on file, while acknowledging that other CIPA theories remain, but this specific provision was the one driving most of the abuse.

Legislative Background and Governor's Rationale

CIPA, enacted in 1967, was originally designed to address electronic surveillance, wiretapping, and eavesdropping, predating the modern internet. Over time, plaintiffs began to argue that common website technologies, such as cookies, pixels, and analytics tools, violated CIPA provisions, particularly those related to pen registers. A pen register is defined in the statute to include a “device or process” that records or decodes routing, addressing, or signaling information. This interpretation led to a significant increase in lawsuits and demand letters by 2025 and 2026.

Governor Newsom, in a letter to the State Senate announcing his adoption of SB 690, explained that he signed the legislation to reform CIPA lawsuit abuse targeting small businesses throughout California. He noted that the measure addresses the vexatious use of CIPA lawsuits and demand letters to extract settlement money from small businesses that unwittingly install software on their websites that at times have tracked and shared the information of visitors to the site. Newsom applauded the efforts of state Senator Anna Caballero, a Democrat from Merced, who initially proposed SB 690, and aligned himself with the goal of protecting small businesses from overzealous lawsuits based on a statute written without today’s complex technological landscape in mind.

Newsom also indicated that additional work in this area is needed, as CIPA contains other decades-old statutes that are also susceptible to abuse by overly aggressive litigants. He urged the Legislature to address these issues in the following year to ensure a fair balance between protecting private information and preventing rapacious litigation.

Key Facts

  • California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 690 into law on September 30, 2026.
  • SB 690 curtails private rights of action under CIPA’s pen-register and trap-and-trace provision for website and app-related conduct.
  • Enforcement of these specific claims is now reserved for the California Attorney General’s office.
  • The law applies retroactively to claims filed on or after January 1, 2025.
  • The legislation aims to reform CIPA lawsuit abuse targeting businesses, including those in the adult entertainment industry like Aylo (Pornhub.com) and Bellesa.
  • Attorneys Corey Silverstein and Lawrence Walters, representing adult industry clients, have acknowledged the significance of SB 690.