Privacy is now a Made in California product

2 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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California’s data privacy law took effect yesterday, although formal regulations and active enforcement by the attorney general’s office don’t kick in until July. Even so, the AG plans to respond to complaints and monitor compliance with the bits of the law that do have teeth now. Until – unless – congress does something, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is the national standard.

If you want confirmation, just look in your email inbox. If it’s anything like mine, it’s full of CCPA notifications. A similar flood of messages happened when the European Union’s data privacy regulations took effect last year. The notices were sent regardless of whether a customer lived in the EU or not, because it’s easier and safer to apply a single standard to everyone when it’s practical to do so. In the U.S., the path of least resistance is complying with California’s standard.

Microsoft certainly agrees

We are strong supporters of California’s new law and the expansion of privacy protections in the United States that it represents. Our approach to privacy starts with the belief that privacy is a fundamental human right and includes our commitment to provide robust protection for every individual. This is why, in 2018, we were the first company to voluntarily extend the core data privacy rights included in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to customers around the world, not just to those in the EU who are covered by the regulation. Similarly, we will extend CCPA’s core rights for people to control their data to all our customers in the U.S.

Google jumped on California’s bandwagon, too. Its CCPA-compliant tools are available worldwide.

Although there seems to be general agreement in Washington, D.C. that something must be done, there isn’t consensus on what that something will be. The big question is whether or not to preempt state privacy laws and impose a single, national standard. A bipartisan draft produced by a house of representatives committee doesn’t offer an answer, because it’s still a partisan issue. Which means California might set the standard for some time to come.