What is the CCPA?
The California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, was signed into law on June 28, 2018, and went into effect on January 1, 2020. The goal of the CCPA is to protect and enhance California residents’ privacy with a strong emphasis on protecting their personal data from businesses.
Examples of personal data include names, usernames, passwords, phone numbers, physical addresses, and other information that may characterize people (i.e., race, religion, sexual orientation, military status, browsing history, etc.) as well as IP addresses and other means of tracking online behavior. Publicly available information, such as court records or marriage licenses, is not considered personal data.
How Does the CCPA Affect Consumers?
Under this law, California residents have the rights to:
- Know what personal data is being collected
- Know if their personal data is sold and who the buyer is
- Deny businesses from selling their personal data
- Access their personal data
- Request businesses to delete collected personal data
- Not be discriminated against for exercising their right to privacy
Even if a consumer is not a resident of California, it is likely the CCPA will affect them. Companies may extend these rights to everyone so they don’t have to figure out which users these rights apply to and won’t deny a California resident any of these items by mistake.
Other states are considering similar privacy laws. As the first privacy law of its kind in the United States, the CCPA is a model for other companies.
How Does the CCPA Affect Businesses?
The CCPA applies to any for-profit organization that collects consumers’ personal data, conducts business in California, and falls under at least one of the following items:
- Makes annual gross revenues of more than $25 million
- Buys or sells 50,000 or more consumers’ personal information
- Earns more than half of its annual revenue from selling personal information.
Businesses must also take reasonable security measures to protect consumer data.
If a company violates any of these items and fails to protect consumer data, it may be fined $2,500 per violation, or, if the violation is found to be intentional, $7,500.
Companies in violation of the CCPA may face a lawsuit from the California attorney general. Users cannot sue companies unless their personal information is lost in a data breach due to negligence.
What is OppGen Doing to Prepare for the CCPA?
As of January 3, 2018, OppGen allows users to request personal data, change or correct personal data, and more. OppGen does not sell or rent personal information to anyone.
The information OppGen shares with partners and advertisers is aggregated demographic information — not personal data or any information that would identify an individual person.
All this information and more can be found in the OppGen privacy policy.
In the meantime, OppGen will continue to review and monitor the CCPA requirements and news surrounding the law in order to stay up to date with any future amendments as well as identify any entities that may be affected by the law. OppGen is in the process of developing a pop-up to inform site visitors about the act and how it impacts them.
All these steps will ensure that OppGen fulfills the requirements of the CCPA and similar consumer privacy laws that may be put into effect in the future, whether on state or national levels.
For more information about the CCPA and its effects on digital marketing, contact OppGen Marketing.
