Shannon's Take on California Privacy Law (Patreon)

California is making privacy moves and it seems to be helping the privacy of the nation. The California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA for short, was approved back in June of 2018 and will go into effect here in California on January 1st, 2020. According to the CCPA, companies must disclose what kind of personal data is being collected about their users, if it is sold and whom they sell it to. Users can opt out of sales of data, have access to that data, and request that a company delete it. It adds transparency to data collection policies.

The new law had some pushback. The Internet Association ran ads saying it would cost companies $55 billion to be compliant initially, and Republicans have argued that the bill is much too strict, saying if a federal law is created, it should nullify this California state law, while Democrats have argued that the bill should be used as a baseline for other states.

But this hasn’t changed Microsoft’s perspective. In a post published on November 11, Microsoft notes that there is no strong national legislation for consumer privacy like the GDPR in Europe. The company has stated they will honor the new CCPA rights across the US to all users. While CCPA is not as strong on privacy protections as GDPR, Microsoft has stated they will monitor changes in the law and make adjustments to provide more effective transparency and control under CCPA to people who use their products in the US. The company mentioned they will be working with enterprise customers as well, to ensure they comply with CCPA. 

Microsoft explains that they hope this new law further strengthens user privacy and places more accountability on companies. They want it to go further, by making laws that minimize the amount of data companies can collect, specify for what purpose data is collected, and hold companies accountable for storage and use.

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Links:

CA Law Sweeps Across US

https://threatpost.com/ccpas-domino-effect-us-privacy-regulation/150246/

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/11/11/microsoft-california-privacy-rights/

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/11/20960113/microsoft-ccpa-privacy-law-california-congress-regulation

https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-to-employ-californias-digital-privacy-law-nationwide/

https://www.cyberscoop.com/microsoft-ccpa-california-privacy/