Back in 2018, California lawmakers hurried to pass the CCPA, a new regulation about privacy and data compliance. This year, Californian voters faced another privacy-related choice on the ballot. So, why is there a new law on the table so soon after implementation of a similar one? The story behind California’s new data privacy law is about human optimism, philosophical battles over the right to privacy, tech companies determined to operate within grey areas, and of course, plenty of confusing acronyms.  On November 3rd, 2020, California voters decided to vote CPRA into law. It will go into effect in January 2023 (with a lookback provision starting in 2022) and have major data compliance implications for all companies that do business …

Last year, the California legislature passed the CCPA – the California Consumer Privacy Act – into law. Its goal is to protect consumers whose data is collected and processed by businesses and other organizations during the course of their internet activity. In the last year, it wasn’t just Californians who experienced the impact of the new California data privacy laws. All companies nationwide with California customers in their data systems had to rapidly bring their data privacy practices up to the law’s standards.   But now, there’s a whole new law on the table. The CPRA, or California Privacy Rights Act, expands on the CCPA by introducing additional detailed requirements for businesses that process consumer data and creating a whole new …

If you want to take the privacy pulse of the nation, there are few better venues than a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in which to do so. Yesterday, the Committee that will be the source of a federal US privacy law – if there ever is one! – convened a hearing called “Revisiting the Need for Federal Data Privacy Legislation.” It’s fair to say they had an all-star cast of privacy experts as witnesses: Julie Brill, Former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission William Kovacic, Former Chairman and Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission Jon Leibowitz, Former Chairman and Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission Maureen Ohlhausen, Former Commissioner and Acting Chairman, Federal Trade Commission Mr. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, State of California   Pretty impressive! …