(CompliancePoint: Duluth, GA) -- It should come as no surprise to anyone that the California State Legislature has passed, and the California governor has signed, amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Having previously been a ballot initiative, one of the main drivers to get the CCPA passed as traditional legislation was to allow the law to go through the standard legislative process, as opposed to the previous ballot initiative that would have made the law difficult and arduous to amend.
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First, the legislature gave the California attorney general some additional time to develop the implementing law as well as pushed back the enforcement date by up to six months, which will be no later than July 1, 2020, for now. Although the enforcement date could be set before July 1, 2020, we will have to wait and see when the regulation is implemented by the attorney general. Companies should be preparing to be compliant by Jan. 1, 2020, and be standing by for enforcement by July 1, 2020.
Further, the amendments add some language around the fine amounts. They can be up to $7,500 per intentional violation. Along these lines, the legislature also removed the requirement to notify the state attorney general within 30 days of filing an action against a company, which used to give the attorney general the power to approve or dismiss the action right out of the gate.
The amendments also provide more clear exemptions to the CCPA in terms of the previously nebulous exemptions regarding personal data and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DDPA), which should help companies that are affected by those regulations scope out some of the personal data within their environments. Keep in mind, however, that these exemptions should be reviewed carefully and applied after thorough analysis.
Last but certainly not least, the amendments updated the notice requirements around the right to be deleted, in order to give businesses some freedom regarding where the disclosure is made; the amendments state it should be made in a reasonable place for the consumer. The amendments also provided clarification around preemption of the law and the U.S. constitution.
As mentioned in the beginning of this overview, it is no surprise that amendments were made to this regulation, and we’ll continue to monitor for future amendments that are likely to occur.
To make the appropriate notice disclosures and honor the right to opt out of access, deletion, and sale of personal data, companies must be intimately aware of the personal data processed within their environments and how the personal data are sold and shared for business purposes. This is not a task that can be accomplished overnight, and companies must begin working to determine if and how this regulation applies to them and begin planning how they will comply.
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