Ballot Pressure Leads to New Californian Privacy Law

The state of California has passed a digital privacy law giving consumers more control over their personal information. While less extensive than the GDPR, the law is one of the most far-reaching in the US.

Consumers in California now have the right to know what information companies collect about them, why, and with whom they share it; they can tell them to stop this sharing and to delete the data, and must still receive the same quality of service afterwards; and they can more easily sue companies who breach this. In addition, the law makes it harder for companies to share or sell data on those aged under sixteen.

The bill was rushed through the State Legislature last Thursday without opposition and signed into law on Thursday, as a means of heading off a far tougher proposal which had been put forward for direct offer to voters in a November ballot, by real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart. Legislators apparently saw Thursday's action as a means of keeping control of the process, as did California's big tech companies who nevertheless regard the new law as significantly flawed.

The new law won't come into effect for eighteen months, during which time a number of 'fixes' are expected for its hastily-compiled tenets - privacy advocates fear this will be used to water down the terms.

According to www.nytimes.com , 'One of the authors of the new law, Assemblyman Ed Chau, a Democrat, tried last year to pass a bill that would have required internet service providers to seek permission from customers before accessing, selling or sharing their browser activity. The bill never made it out of committee - an example of the influence of telecommunications and technology companies in California'.