A new president-elect wasn’t the only decision in California on November 3. Voters approved the California Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020 (CPRA), which amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that came into effect in January.
What is CCPA?
As a reminder, the CCPA is the Plymouth Rock of privacy protection in the United States. Other regions, like Europe, introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) back in 2018. But the CCPA goes beyond protecting the privacy of citizens to also exposing economic relationships developed and fueled by their information. Like GDPR, CCPA provides a “right to know” why personal information is collected and how it is used and shared, a “right to delete” personal information and a “right to opt out” of the sales of their personal data with a protected “right to non-discrimination” when they exercise their CCPA rights.
What is CPRA?
California has also created a new oversight agency called the California Protection Agency to enforce consumer privacy protections. The newest act, CPRA, also triples the maximum penalties for privacy violations involving minors (consumers under 16) to $7,500 per violation.
The California Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020 (CPRA), which takes effect on January 1, 2023, amends and hardens the preceding CCPA act in the following ways:
Higher inclusion thresholds with CPRA
Under the CPRA, any business that buys, sells or shares personal data of 100,000 consumers for business purposes is required to comply with the law. The old threshold, before CPRA, was 50,000 and included the sale of devices, which has now been eliminated. Note that the annual gross revenue of $25 million or 50 percent of annual revenues derived from the sale of consumer data remains the same.
CPRA brings expanded information definitions
With CPRA, consumers can request that businesses stop selling “sensitive personal information,” defined as any one of the following: social security number, account credentials and geolocation. It also protects more abstract information such as health, race, ethnicity, religion and memberships.
CPRA expands consumer rights
The CPRA expands the “right to opt out” beyond resale to include non-monetary transfers. Now, consumers can opt out from the sharing of their personal information, defined as disclosure or transfer to a third-party.
The CPRA expands the “right to know” from a 12-month limitation to beyond one year. And, the law also expands disclosure obligations to require businesses to notify consumers of the length of time they will retain personal information.
In addition to the amendments, CPRA adds a new “right of correction,” which provides a mechanism for consumers to correct inaccurate information. Businesses must now disclose this right and make “commercially reasonable” efforts to do so.
CPRA new exceptions and extensions
The CPRA doesn’t swing all to the consumer. The new law creates an exception to the “right to delete” allowing businesses to deny a request of the retention of personal data is “reasonably necessary and proportionate” and is adequately protected. Also, the CPRA extends employee and business-to-business exemptions until January 1, 2023.
CCPA and CPRA
Beyond the new rights and exemptions, the CCPA and CPRA duo demonstrate an overwhelming demand by consumers for their privacy and eliminate a carte blanche approach to the collection and dissemination of information. By implication, it means consumers expect that businesses will protect their data, not only from business operations, but from unauthorized access, transfer and resale. CPRA means businesses, while mapping data flow and resale, need to secure that entire pipeline from one end to the other.
