CALIFORNIA IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF U.S. PRIVACY LAWS
CALIFORNIA IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF U.S. PRIVACY LAWS
Californians passed Proposition 24, a Consumer Personal Information Law and Agency Initiative. The law requires extra compliance and requires a company to publish retention periods for various kinds of personal data captured by the company. The new law also gives consumers the right to opt out of their data being shared for “cross-context behavioral advertising,” or targeted advertising, even if it is not being explicitly sold. That impacts all kinds of tech industry companies.
The new law eliminates a 30-day cure period that existed under the California Consumer Privacy Act, which gave businesses the leeway to confer with the State’s Attorney General and remedy any poor data practices before an enforcement action. With no cure period in the new law, there is a bigger legal risk and a higher compliance burden. Worse, a legal action could be filed without any warning.
The new law does not take effect until Jan. 1, 2023, but personal information collected by businesses starting Jan. 1, 2022, would be scrutinized for any lawsuit or compliance audit. So, now is the time to revise privacy policies and practices.
The new law provides for a new agency with a five-member oversight board. Companies need to be more diligent about their data retention and sharing practices or risk hefty fines of as much as $2,500 per violation or $7,500 per intentional violation. The new agency will also issue regulations requiring risk assessments for businesses where their handling of consumer data “presents significant risk” to the privacy or security of consumers and companies may be subject to annual cybersecurity audits also.
For more information feel free to contact Dawn: dcoulson@eppscoulson.com.
EPPS & COULSON, LLP
Attorneys admitted to practice in
California, New York, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, and Hawaii
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