CCPA Compliance: What Your Business Must Know

Posted: August 13, 2018 to Compliance.

Tags: Compliance, Data Breach, HIPAA

What does CCPA Compliance mean for your business?

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), a consumer privacy law that establishes guidelines on collecting personal information and post-data-acquisition usage goes into effect January 1, 2020. The new law will apply to any business that operates in California and has annual gross revenues in excess of $25 million; or receive or disclose the personal information of 50,000 or more California residents, households or devices on an annual basis; or derive 50 percent or more of their annual revenues from selling California residents’ personal information. So, what does the CCPA mean for your business, and how can you be compliant?

The CCPA entitles California residents to have ownership and control over their personal information and guarantees businesses safeguard the information they collect. Personal information includes several items like name, date of birth, email addresses, social security number, geolocation, IP addresses, shopping history, behaviors, and consumer preferences. The Act requires businesses to provide a minimum of two means for consumers to submit requests for disclosure, such as a toll-free telephone number and Web site link. Once requested, businesses have 45 days to provide the consumer with their information and must do so free of charge.

Consumers will now have the right to “opt-out” of a business selling their information. Businesses must provide a link on their websites which enable consumers to “opt-out” of information selling. The law will also require a business to obtain an “opt-in” permission for anyone under 16 years of age, and under the age of 13 will require parental consent to “opt-in”.

Businesses will be obligated to provide consumers with a detailed list of what information is collected, and the consumer will have the right to demand that information be deleted, with only a few exceptions. Businesses will also be required to tell consumers WHY they are collecting the information or from whom information was purchased.

Consumers are protected from retribution for exercising their privacy rights under the CCPA and have the right to equal service and pricing as other consumers.  And finally, the penalty for intentional violations of the CCPA is up to $7,500 per violation. A company with just 10,000 consumers could be looking at a data breach fine as much as $75 million.

It is imperative that businesses have a compliance plan and information release strategy prior to 2021. Don’t wait. Make sure your company has the competitive edge in CCPA compliance. Contact our Security & Compliance team for a consultation today.

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