California workplace surveillance laws: the 2026 bathroom ban and the ban on AI emotion tracking

California passed two short workplace surveillance laws in 2026. AB 1331 keeps surveillance tools out of workplace bathrooms, and AB 1883 bans surveillance tools that use AI to read employees' emotions or collect their neural data. Both were approved by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State on 30 September 2026, as chapters 851 and 853 of the Statutes of 2026 (AB 1331; AB 1883). Neither bans monitoring in general, and neither requires notice of monitoring. This page explains what the chaptered text says, who it covers, how it is enforced, and how it fits with California's older recording rule and its AI hiring rules.

The short answer: from 1 January 2027 (our reading of the usual start date, see below), a California employer may not use a workplace surveillance tool to monitor employees in a workplace bathroom unless a court orders it, and employees may leave such tools behind when they go in. An employer also may not use a surveillance tool that uses artificial intelligence to recognize or predict an employee's emotional state, or to collect neural data. The Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor can enforce both laws, with a penalty of up to $500 per violation.

What counts as a workplace surveillance tool

Both laws use almost the same definition: a system, application, instrument or device that collects, or helps collect, employee data, activities, communications, actions, biometrics or behaviors by means other than direct observation by a person. The listed examples include video or audio surveillance, continuous incremental time-tracking tools, geolocation, electromagnetic tracking, photoelectronic tracking and photo-optical systems (Lab. Code 1560(f), AB 1331; Lab. Code 1580(g), AB 1883). AB 1331 adds that smoke or carbon monoxide detectors and weapon detection systems that automatically screen a person's body are not workplace surveillance tools for the bathroom rule.

Both laws define artificial intelligence the same way: an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments (1560(a); 1580(a)).

AB 1331: no surveillance in workplace bathrooms

• The ban: unless directed by a court order, an employer shall not use a workplace surveillance tool to monitor or surveil employees in a bathroom located in the workplace (Lab. Code 1561(a)).
• Leaving tools behind: an employee has the right to leave behind surveillance tools on their person or in their possession when entering a bathroom. This does not apply if the employee must remain available during meal or rest periods under federal law or existing state law (1561(b)(1), (2)).
• Entry and exit checks: the employer may still check its tools for the one-time entry and exit of workplace bathrooms (1561(b)(3)).
• No violation when: an employee chooses to bring a tool into the bathroom, or brings a tool such as a badge or personal alarm because an employer policy requires it to be carried for identification or safety, or because it is needed to open a locked or secured bathroom. That second case only works if the tool does not detect or record audio or video and has no physically embedded or attached artificial intelligence (1561(c)).

The chaptered text runs from section 1560 to 1565 but has no section 1562.

AB 1883: no AI emotion recognition and no neural data

• The ban: an employer shall not use a workplace surveillance tool that uses artificial intelligence on employees for either recognizing, or making inferences or predictions about, an individual's emotional state, or collecting neural data (Lab. Code 1581(a)).
• Neural data: information generated by measuring the activity of an employee's central or peripheral nervous system, and not inferred from nonneural information (1580(e)).
• What stays allowed: the section does not stop an employer from using a surveillance tool to ensure safety, or any tool that does not do the two banned things (1581(b)).

Our reading, not a court ruling: the ban is tied to what the AI does, not to what the product is called. A camera, call analytics or wearable that only records is outside section 1581, while the same product with a feature that scores mood, stress or emotion from faces, voices or body signals falls inside it. The text does not say how the safety allowance in 1581(b) relates to a tool that both serves safety and reads emotions; check before relying on it for, say, driver fatigue or stress detection.

Who is covered

Both laws reach public employers as well as private ones. AB 1331 includes all branches of state government, cities, counties, school districts, special districts and other public agencies (1560(d)(1)); AB 1883 lists the state, the University of California, the California State University, cities and counties whether general law or charter, transit, school and community college districts and other state or local entities (1580(d)(2)(A)). Both also count as employers labor contractors, farm labor contractors, foreign labor contractors, and businesses that use labor contractors, such as client employers and companies that contract for property services. Each act also declares that it addresses a matter of statewide concern and applies to charter cities (AB 1331 sec. 2; AB 1883 sec. 2).

Enforcement and penalties

• Labor Commissioner: may investigate, order temporary relief while a case is pending, issue citations and file civil actions, using its usual citation procedures (1563(a); 1582(a)).
• Public prosecutors may also enforce both laws (1563(b); 1582(b)).
• Remedies: in a civil action the petitioner may seek temporary or preliminary injunctive relief, including punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs (1563(c); 1582(c)).
• Penalty: up to $500 for each violation, on top of any other remedy (1563(d); 1582(d)(1)). AB 1883 adds that an employee, the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor may recover the penalty either as a statutory penalty paid to the employee or as a civil penalty, but not both for the same violation (1582(d)(2)). AB 1331 has no such line.
• Where to sue: the superior court in any county where the violation is alleged to have occurred or where the employer transacts business.

Exceptions

• Aircraft and defense: neither law prohibits a surveillance tool relating to the development of aircraft for use in the national airspace, or of products or services for national security, military, space or defense purposes. The exemption only covers operations under a federal statute, federal regulation or binding federal contract where the tool is reasonably necessary to comply with it (1565; 1583).
• Other law (AB 1331): the bathroom rule does not stop an employer from using surveillance tools that federal or existing state law or regulation requires, and does not authorize any use that federal or existing state law prohibits (1564(c), (d)).
• Stronger rules stay: AB 1331 does not limit other state or local laws that protect employees equally or better, and names Labor Code section 435 (1564(a)). AB 1883 says it does not preempt a city or county ordinance that gives equal or greater protection (1582(f)).

How this fits with California's other rules

• Labor Code 435 (since 1999): an employer may not make an audio or video recording of an employee in a restroom, locker room or room designated for changing clothes unless a court order authorizes it, and may not use such a recording for any purpose. It covers private and public employers except the federal government, and a violation is an infraction (Lab. Code 435). AB 1331 goes further on bathrooms: it covers any surveillance tool, not only recordings, but it does not mention locker or changing rooms, which remain under section 435.
• CCPA neural data: the California Consumer Privacy Act now lists a consumer's neural data as sensitive personal information, with the same definition AB 1883 uses (Civ. Code 1798.140). The CCPA applies only to businesses it covers and governs how data is handled; AB 1883 bans the AI collection of neural data at work outright and also binds public employers.
• AI in employment decisions: the Civil Rights Council's rules on automated decision systems and the CPPA's automated decisionmaking technology (ADMT) rules govern how AI is used to hire, pay, promote or fire. They add duties like anti-bias care, notices and opt-outs, not bans on particular kinds of monitoring. See California AI employment rules. Our reading, not a court ruling: an emotion-scoring interview or monitoring tool can be both a banned surveillance tool under AB 1883 and an automated decision system under those rules.

When the laws take effect

Neither act contains an urgency clause or a start date of its own. Under the California Constitution, a statute enacted at a regular session goes into effect on 1 January next following a 90 day period from its enactment (Cal. Const. art. IV, sec. 8(c)), so our reading is that both take effect on 1 January 2027. Both acts label their new part as Part 5.8 of Division 2 of the Labor Code, so the published code may number them differently. As of our check on 5 November 2026 neither part appeared yet in the Legislature's code database (California Legislature bulk data).

The bills' histories: AB 1331, by Assembly Member Elhawary, was introduced on 21 February 2025, amended nine times and passed both houses on 31 August 2026. AB 1883, by Assembly Member Bryan, was introduced on 12 February 2026 and passed the Senate on 28 August and the Assembly on 30 August 2026 (AB 1331; AB 1883).

What this means in practice

• Employers: list every tool that tracks people, including badges, wearables, phones with location apps and cameras near restrooms. Set a rule that tracking devices can stay outside bathrooms, and check that badges carried inside record no audio or video and have no built-in AI. Ask each vendor whether any feature infers emotion, mood or stress or reads nervous system signals, and switch it off for California staff.
• Workers: you may leave a work tracker or device outside a workplace bathroom unless you must stay on call during a break. Complaints go to the Labor Commissioner.

For monitoring laws in other states, see US employee monitoring laws, and for AI monitoring in general, AI monitoring at work.

This page is general information based on the chaptered texts of AB 1331 and AB 1883 and the code sections published by the California Legislature when checked on 5 November 2026, not legal advice. We read the bill text from the Legislature's official bulk data download; check the codified sections and any later amendments before relying on it.