A new privacy law aimed to protect consumers comes into force in California today, January 2nd, 2020. Wired rounded up everything you need to know.
The CCPA applies to any company that operates in California and either makes at least $25 million in annual revenue, gathers data on more than 50 thousand users, or makes more than half its money off of user data. For California residents, it creates a handful of new rights over their data. The most significant categories are what Alastair Mactaggart, the California real estate magnate behind the ballot initiative that led to the law being passed, calls “the right to know” and “the right to say no.” That means users will, as of today, be able to see what data companies have gathered about them, have that data deleted, and opt out of those companies selling it to third parties from now on.
Check It Out: California’s New Privacy Law Comes into Force Today
Note that companies like Facebook and Google don’t actually sell your data to companies directly; instead they sell your eyeballs to advertisers. Thus the “never sell my data” condition will have little if any effect on what data they collect or how they use it.
The good news is that this will apply to some of the larger information brokers and data clearinghouses, which are largely unregulated and operate out of the public eye.
Of course, Facebook could get in trouble because they sell API access, which still allows users (think Cambridge Analytica) to grab all sorts of information.
I expect this will be fought in court for years and eventually eviscerated by federal laws that only pay lip service to privacy, but for now it’s very good news, especially considering that Silicon Valley is in California.