CCPA Enforcement: What You Need To Know

“Mini GDPR”

“California’s answer to the EU’s GDPR.”

“It is California’s landmark legislation.”

“The biggest privacy compliance challenge for businesses.”

These are just some of the headlines that made the rounds ever since the California Consumer Privacy Act was first announced.

Unanimously passed by the state of California in June 2018, CCPA came into effect on January 1, 2020.

While the announcement of the law was enough to have Silicon Valley shaking in its boots, the enforcement made things way more serious. However, the Californian data privacy law saw some amendments recently. We talk about that and much more in our blog post.

CCPA Enforced Amid the Pandemic

While the Californian data privacy law became effective on the 1st of January, 2020, it was only enforced from the 1st of July, 2020. However, given the ongoing pandemic, there were speculations whether enforcement would begin on the said date, or not.

A lot of the companies had rooted for this date to be pushed further in order for them to adapt to the current times and be better prepared. But this proposal was dismissed by the California Attorney General.

“For sure we will start enforcing on July 1,” said Xavier Becerra, the California Attorney General. “It’d be very awkward to continue another six months as some companies were requesting where people would have rights, companies would have obligations, but no one would be there to make sure those rights are being complied with,” he said.

Uncertainty Around Regulations

CCPA regulations saw extensive modifications. For instance, there was a change in the privacy policy disclosure requirements, the opt-out button, and the process of responding to access requests to name a few.

Following the uncertainty, the Californian data privacy law’s regulations had to undergo a 90-day review by the California Office of Administrative Law. Only after that would their final text be filed with the California Secretary of State.

A Significant Amendment To CCPA

The California legislature, as of August 30th, passed a bill to continue the employee and B2B exemptions for another year. Although CCPA will not fully apply to B2B and employee information, it still imposes certain conditions for this type of information. This means that businesses must still provide notice while collecting applicant or employee information.

This brought relief to a number of companies, as the existing set of exemptions were to expire at the end of 2020.

Both of these exemptions become ineffective on January 1, 2021. Assembly Bill 1281 (“AB 1281”) would continue these exemptions until January 1, 2022.

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