California Neural Privacy Law Spurs Fresh Compliance Headache

California’s newly enacted measure explicitly adding brain waves as a category of sensitive information under its comprehensive privacy law adds another regulatory layer for companies navigating the state’s broader regime.

The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, makes California the second state to act on the issue, after Colorado enacted its own law in April.

California’s broad definition of neural data, which differs from Colorado, could pose a compliance challenge for companies, attorneys say.

The California law is meant to provide privacy protection for consumer devices such as wearables that, unlike medical devices, aren’t covered by federal health-privacy ...