California, arguably the most consumer-friendly state, has once again placed itself at the forefront of legislation, this time with a law impacting data protection, by enacting – in one week from the time it was drafted – the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). If it seems reckless to pass legislation in such a short period of time, most reasonable people would probably agree.
Nevertheless, this law will take effect on January 1, 2020, although the California Attorney General will not begin to enforce it until July 2020. It will affect for-profit businesses that either have annual gross sales in excess of $25 million, or that buys/shares/receives or sells for commercial purposes personal information of fifty thousand or more consumer household devices (devices not just consumers). There is a temporary exclusion for employee data until January 1, 2021.
The CCPA provides the following rights to consumers:
- To know the categories of information collected
- To know the categories of information sold or disclosed for a business purpose
- Right to delete their information
- Right to opt-out of sale of their data to third parties
Additionally, there are expansive categories of what is considered personal information, including things such as email addresses, browsing history (information gathered from cookies), geolocation data, purchasing history, purchasing preferences, just to name a few. The draft regulations are open for comment until December 6, 2019.
Posted by: Rudy Troisi, President and CEO, Reliable Background Screening
Copyright © 2019, Reliable Background Screening, a Division of Marcett, Inc. All rights reserved.
