Privacy legislation perspectives in 2020

Internet security continues to be a key concern for consumers and business, especially when it comes to data protection. While the best antivirus software will often have privacy settings to help consumers better control what information is shared with companies, businesses themselves have more regulations to face in the coming years.

The global privacy legislation landscape has shifted considerably during 2019, and 2020 is going to be another busy year from a data protection standpoint. In fact, the start of the new year (1 January 2020) will see the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) enter into application. 

On Friday, October 11, 2019, Xavier Becerra, the California Governor signed all five of the California Consumer Privacy Act amendments that were awaiting his signature as well as an amendment to California’s data breach law. 

Attention is now being focused on draft regulations proposed by the California Attorney General. A period of public consultation, including several public hearings, will now take place up until 6 December 2019 and several proposals have already been tabled to make the legislation even stricter in 2020. This includes the Mactaggart ballot initiative, which proposes that a data protection authority be established in California to enforce the legislation on an ongoing basis. 

Focus on consumer rights

While CCPA legislation may not be an omnibus style law like the GDPR, it has been inspired by it, particularly around data subject rights. The primary focus of the CCPA relates to individual consumer rights; the right to request information, right of deletion, right to opt-out of data being sold and obligations on businesses to inform consumers and employees of what personal data of theirs will be collected and for what purpose – at the ti