As used in this part, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) “Account” means an arrangement under a terms-of-service agreement in which the custodian carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of the user or provides goods or services to the user.

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(b) “Carries” means engages in the transmission of electronic communications.

(c) “Catalogue of electronic communications” means information that identifies each person with which a user has had an electronic communication, the time and date of the communication, and the electronic address of the person.

(d) “Content of an electronic communication” means information concerning the substance or meaning of the communication, which meets all of the following requirements:

(1) Has been sent or received by a user.

(2) Is in electronic storage by a custodian providing an electronic communication service to the public or is carried or maintained by a custodian providing a remote-computing service to the public.

(3) Is not readily accessible to the public.

(e) “Court” means the superior court presiding over the judicial proceedings which have been initiated under this code to administer the estate of the deceased user, or, if none, the superior court sitting in the exercise of jurisdiction under this code in the county of the user’s domicile, and the court, as defined in this section, shall have exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings brought under this part.

(f) “Custodian” means a person that carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of a user.

(g) “Designated recipient” means a person chosen by a user using an online tool to administer digital assets of the user.

(h) “Digital asset” means an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. The term “digital asset” does not include an underlying asset or liability, unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record.

(i) “Electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.

(j) “Electronic communication” has the same meaning as the definition in Section 2510(12) of Title 18 of the United States Code.

(k) “Electronic communication service” means a custodian that provides to a user the ability to send or receive an electronic communication.

(l) “Fiduciary” means an original, additional, or successor personal representative or trustee.

(m) “Information” means data, text, images, videos, sounds, codes, computer programs, software, databases, or other items with like characteristics.

(n) “Online tool” means an electronic service provided by a custodian that allows the user, in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement between the custodian and user, to provide directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person.

(o) “Person” means an individual, estate, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or other legal entity.

(p) “Personal representative” means an executor, administrator, special administrator, or person that performs substantially the same function under any other law.

(q) “Power of attorney” means a record that grants an agent authority to act in the place of the principal.

(r) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form.

(s) “Remote-computing service” means a custodian that provides to a user computer processing services or the storage of digital assets by means of an electronic communications system, as defined in Section 2510(14) of Title 18 of the United States Code.

(t) “Terms-of-service agreement” means an agreement that controls the relationship between a user and a custodian.

(u) “Trustee” means a fiduciary with legal title to property under an agreement or declaration that creates a beneficial interest in another. The term includes a successor trustee.

(v) “User” means a person that has an account with a custodian.

(w) “Will” includes a codicil, a testamentary instrument that only appoints an executor, or an instrument that revokes or revises a testamentary instrument.

(Added by Stats. 2016, Ch. 551, Sec. 1. (AB 691) Effective January 1, 2017.)