HB26-1049 • 2026

Prohibit Use of Personally Identifying Feature

The bill criminalizes the use of an individual's fingerprint, voiceprint, retina, iris, or facial map (personally identifying feature) in an advertisement, deepfake, image, video, voice recording, or

Crime Technology

Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor: Rep. S. Bottoms, Sen. M. Baisley
Last action: 2026-02-12
Official status: House Committee on State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Postpone Indefinitely
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official status indicates this bill was postponed indefinitely on February 12, 2026, meaning it did not become effective law at that time.

Prohibit Use of Personally Identifying Features Without Permission

This bill makes it a crime to use someone's fingerprint, voiceprint, eye scan, or facial map in digital content without their permission.

What This Bill Does

Creates a new law that bans using specific personal features like fingerprints and face maps in ads, deepfakes, videos, images, voice recordings, or other digital depictions without consent.
Classifies the unauthorized use of these features as a class 5 felony under state criminal law.
Increases the penalty to a class 4 felony if the person uses the feature with the intent to harm someone.
Allows individuals who are harmed by this unlawful use to file a civil lawsuit for money damages and attorney fees.

Who It Names or Affects

People whose fingerprints, voiceprints, eye scans, or facial maps are used without their permission.
Individuals who create advertisements, deepfakes, videos, voice recordings, or other digital content using someone else's identifying features.

Terms To Know

Personally Identifying Feature: A person's fingerprint, voiceprint, scan of their eye retina or iris, or facial map used to identify them.
Deepfake: Digital content defined in state law that uses technology to make it look like a real person said or did something they actually did not.
Class 5 Felony: A serious crime under Colorado law with specific penalties for punishment.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill does not apply to images, videos, voice recordings, or other digital depictions distributed in connection with a criminal investigation.
The bill does not apply to content taken by someone reporting or documenting criminal conduct.
Government agencies and employees are exempt when performing their official duties.
News broadcasts, public affairs accounts, sports broadcasts, comment, criticism, scholarship, satire, parody, and other First Amendment protected activities are excluded.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

L.003

HOU State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs

Passed [*]

Plain English: This amendment changes the law to only punish people who use someone's biometric data without permission if they do it on purpose to hurt that person.

The bill now requires proof that a person used another individual's fingerprint, voiceprint, or facial map with the specific intent to cause harm.
Using these personal features is only considered illegal under this law if there was no permission given and the goal was to intentionally hurt the victim.

The amendment text provided does not define exactly what counts as 'intentionally harming' someone, which may need further explanation in court.
Because only specific lines were struck out without showing the full original context, it is unclear if other parts of the bill still allow for penalties that do not require intent to harm.

Bill History

2026-02-12 House
House Committee on State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Postpone Indefinitely
2026-02-02 House
House Committee on State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Witness Testimony and/or Committee Discussion Only
2026-01-14 House
Introduced In House - Assigned to State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs

Official Summary Text

The bill criminalizes the use of an individual's fingerprint, voiceprint, retina, iris, or facial map (personally identifying feature) in an advertisement, deepfake, image, video, voice recording, or other digital depiction, without the individual's permission (unlawful use of a personally identifying feature). Unlawful use of a personally identifying feature is a class 5 felony, and unlawful use of a personally identifying feature with the intent to harm the individual or another individual is a class 4 felony.
An individual harmed by an unlawful use of a personally identifying feature may bring a civil cause of action and collect damages and reasonable attorney fees.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

Second Regular Session
Seventy-fifth General Assembly
STATE OF COLORADO
INTRODUCED

LLS NO. 26-0261.01 Owen Hatch x2698 HOUSE BILL 26-1049
House Committees Senate Committees
State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs
A BILL FOR AN ACT
CONCERNING PROHIBITING THE USE OF ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL 'S101
PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE WITHOUT PERMISSION.102
Bill Summary
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does
not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill
passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that
applies to the reengrossed version of this bill will be available at
http://leg.colorado.gov.)
The bill criminalizes the use of an individual's fingerprint,
voiceprint, retina, iris, or facial map (personally identifying feature) in an
advertisement, deepfake, image, video, voice recording, or other digital
depiction, without the individual's permission (unlawful use of a
personally identifying feature). Unlawful use of a personally identifying
feature is a class 5 felony, and unlawful use of a personally identifying
HOUSE SPONSORSHIP
Bottoms,
SENATE SPONSORSHIP
Baisley,
Shading denotes HOUSE amendment. Double underlining denotes SENATE amendment.
Capital letters or bold & italic numbers indicate new material to be added to existing law.
Dashes through the words or numbers indicate deletions from existing law.
feature with the intent to harm the individual or another individual is a
class 4 felony.
An individual harmed by an unlawful use of a personally
identifying feature may bring a civil cause of action and collect damages
and reasonable attorney fees.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:1
SECTION 1. In Colorado Revised Statutes, add 18-5-906 as2
follows:3
18-5-906. Unlawful use of personally identifying features -4
civil action - exceptions - definitions.5
(1) AS USED IN THIS SECTION, UNLESS THE CONTEXT OTHERWISE6
REQUIRES:7
(a) "HARM" MEANS A PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, OR FINANCIAL HARM.8
(b) "PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE" MEANS AN INDIVIDUAL'S:9
(I) FINGERPRINT;10
(II) VOICEPRINT;11
(III) SCAN OR RECORD OF THEIR EYE RETINA OR IRIS; AND12
(IV) FACIAL MAP, FACIAL GEOMETRY, OR FACIAL TEMPLATE.13
(c) "USE" MEANS TO TAKE, CAPTURE, CREATE, INCLUDE IN, OR BE14
A PART OF:15
(I) AN ADVERTISEMENT;16
(II) A DEEPFAKE, AS DEFINED IN SECTION 1-46-102;17
(III) AN IMAGE;18
(IV) A VIDEO;19
(V) A VOICE RECORDING; OR20
(VI) ANY OTHER DIGITAL DEPICTION.21
(2) A PERSON COMMITS UNLAWFUL USE OF A PERSONALLY22
IDENTIFYING FEATURE IF THE PERSON:23
HB26-1049-2-
(a) USES A PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE OF AN INDIVIDUAL1
WITHOUT PERMISSION; OR2
(b) USES A PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE OF AN INDIVIDUAL3
WITHOUT PERMISSION TO INTENTIONALLY HARM THE INDIVIDUAL WHOSE4
PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE IS UNLAWFULLY USED.5
(3) (a) UNLAWFUL USE OF A PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE6
IN VIOLATION OF SUBSECTION (2)(a) OF THIS SECTION IS A CLASS 5 FELONY.7
(b) UNLAWFUL USE OF A PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE IN8
VIOLATION OF SUBSECTION (2)(b) OF THIS SECTION IS A CLASS 4 FELONY.9
(4) AN INDIVIDUAL HARMED IN VIOLATION OF THIS SECTION MAY10
BRING A CIVIL ACTION FOR DAMAGES AND REASONABLE ATTORNEY FEES.11
UNLAWFUL USE PURSUANT TO SUBSECTION (2)(a) OF THIS SECTION IS A12
LEGALLY COGNIZABLE HARM . AN INDIVIDUAL MAY INCLUDE IN THEIR13
CIVIL ACTION A CLAIM FOR ANY AMOUNT OF DAMAGES.14
(5) (a) THIS SECTION DOES NOT APPLY TO AN IMAGE, VIDEO, VOICE15
RECORDING, OR OTHER DIGITAL DEPICTION DISTRIBUTED TO THE PUBLIC IN16
CONNECTION WITH A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OR TAKEN BY A PERSON IN17
THE ACT OF REPORTING OR DOCUMENTING CRIMINAL CONDUCT.18
(b) THIS SECTION DOES NOT APPLY TO A CITY, COUNTY, CITY AND19
COUNTY, OR STATE GOVERNMENT , OR AN EMPLOYEE THEREOF , IN20
CONNECTION WITH AN OFFICIAL ACT OF THE CITY , COUNTY , CITY AND21
COUNTY, OR STATE GOVERNMENT , OR AN EMPLOYEE THEREOF IN THE22
PERFORMANCE OF THEIR OFFICIAL DUTIES.23
(c) THIS SECTION DOES NOT APPLY:24
(I) IN CONNECTION WITH ANY NEWS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS, OR SPORTS25
BROADCAST OR ACCOUNT;26
(II) FOR THE PURPOSES OF COMMENT , CRITICISM, SCHOLARSHIP,27
HB26-1049-3-
SATIRE, OR PARODY;1
(III) T O A REPRESENTATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHOSE2
PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING FEATURE IS BEING USED AS THE INDIVIDUAL'S3
SELF IN AN AUDIOVISUAL WORK, AS DEFINED PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SEC.4
101, UNLESS THE AUDIOVISUAL WORK CONTAINING THE USE IS INTENDED5
TO CREATE, AND DOES CREATE, THE FALSE IMPRESSION THAT THE WORK IS6
AN AUTHENTIC RECORDING IN WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATED;7
(IV) T O A FLEETING OR INCIDENTAL USE OF A PERSONALLY8
IDENTIFYING FEATURE;9
(V) TO AN ADVERTISEMENT OR COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR10
AN AUDIOVISUAL WORK DESCRIBED IN THIS SUBSECTION (5)(c); AND11
(VI) TO ANY OTHER ACTIVITY PROTECTED PURSUANT TO THE FIRST12
AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.13
SECTION 2. Applicability. This act applies to offenses14
committed on or after the effective date of this act.15
SECTION 3. Safety clause. The general assembly finds,16
determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate17
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety or for appropriations for18
the support and maintenance of the departments of the state and state19
institutions.20
HB26-1049-4-