California Privacy Act: California Unanimously Passes One of the Toughest Privacy Laws in the United States — Tech & ISPs Don’t Like It
California has passed one of the toughest data privacy laws in the United States designed to dramatically change how businesses handle user data in the state. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 comes after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went live in Europe attracting much-needed attention to user privacy and data protection policies around the world.
In a historic move, the populous state passed the bill unanimously setting an important precedent for the rest of the country. The bill will take effect in 2020 and the relevant stakeholders are expected to fine-tune the legislation’s details by that time.
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“Today the California Legislature made history by passing the most comprehensive privacy law in the country,” state senator Robert Hertzberg said. “We in California are continuing to push the envelope on technology and privacy issues by enacting robust consumer protections – without stifling innovation.”
The so-called California Consumer Privacy Act appears to be similar to Europe’s GDPR. The bill will require businesses, small and large, to disclose to users what kind of data they are collecting and storing on them, ability to get that deleted, details if the business has sold that data to some other company and their information, and other similar requirements to properly disclose everything to end users.
According to reports, some of the big players like AT&T, Amazon, and Uber spent millions of dollars to block the ballot measure in the state that was proposing even stronger privacy rules. The last-minute bill was passed to defeat the stricter ballot initiative, as the group behind it had said it would withdraw it if the bill passed since the legislation is close enough and gives the industry time to make their own changes.
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“The senate can vote on amendments and the special interests can lobby on these amendments,” Ashkan Soltani, former chief technology officer of the Federal Trade Commission told Wired . “The reason why we haven’t been able to do anything in privacy for 20 years is because the special interests are so powerful.”
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the bill into law after it passed both the chambers unanimously.
