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conceptUpdated Apr 18, 2026

System Provenance Data

provenancemetadatacaliforniaprivacy
Jurisdiction
US-CA
Issuer
California Legislature

Non-personal technical information about AI-generated content that ai-detection-tools may output under the california-ai-transparency-act-sb-942.

Definition

Per Section 22757.1(j), "system provenance data" means provenance data that is not reasonably capable of being associated with a particular user and contains either:

  1. Device/System Information: "Information regarding the type of device, system, or service that was used to generate a piece of digital content"

  2. Authenticity Information: "Information related to content authenticity"

Key Characteristics

Privacy-Safe

System provenance data is specifically defined as information that "is not reasonably capable of being associated with a particular user," distinguishing it from personal-provenance-data.

Technical Focus

Includes technical details about:

  • Generation systems and devices
  • Content authenticity markers
  • Non-identifying metadata

Detection Tool Output

Section 22757.2(a)(2) requires that AI detection tools "output any system provenance data that is detected in the content" while Section 22757.2(a)(3) prohibits outputting personal-provenance-data.

Relationship to Provenance Data

System provenance data is a subset of provenance-data - specifically the portion that cannot be linked to individual users, making it safe for public disclosure through detection tools.

Privacy Protection

The distinction between system and personal provenance data ensures that detection tools can provide useful technical information about content origins without compromising user privacy.

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