(Replying to my own comment because I've been digging and would rather search for truth than argue.) This article has more details about why this an issue now:

(Replying to my own comment because I've been digging and would rather search for truth than argue.) This article has more details about why this an issue now: https://getterms.io/blog/california-invasion-of-privacy-act-cipa https://getterms.io/blog/california-invasion-of-privacy-act-... Basically, CIPA is a 1994 law, initially aimed at landline telephones, that forbids wiretapping or recording conversations without the consent of both parties. Starting in 2024, there have been a number of lawsuits that argue that things like cookies and recorded chats should be considered wiretapping. Several of these lawsuits have been dismissed, but some are still pending, and the legislature / corporate lobbyists are trying to get ahead of the problem by explicitly exempting themselves from CIPA. Personally I think a better solution would be to explicitly enumerate the types of tracking that are considered violations of CIPA, rather than adding a blanket exception for commercial purposes. But I also think that wave of CIPA lawsuits in the last year isn't a great trend either: one (recently dismissed) case actually did try to argue that collecting IP addresses was a "pen register", which would've criminalized running a hobby website. https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/02/collecting-ip-addresses-not-an-invasion-of-privacy-says-new-york-federal-court-in-cipa-pen-register-action https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/02/...