Industry Urges Emergency Delay in CCPA Enforcement

In the US, the Insights Association (IA) has joined 33 other industry groups to 'implore' the California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, to delay enforcing California's new privacy law until January 2nd, 2021, because of the 'havoc' being caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) aims to enhance the privacy rights of the state's residents. It enables them to find out what personal data is being collected about them, access it, know whether it is sold or disclosed and to whom, say 'no' to the sale, and ask businesses to delete it.

In a coalition letter sent today, IA and the group urged Becerra to temporarily halt CCPA, so businesses are able to build processes that are in line with the final regulations and avoid being subject to enforcement actions for allegedly violating the law's terms. In a statement, IA said that coming into compliance with the privacy law by July 1st, with regulations not even finalized yet, was already going to be a near-impossible task, but in a general state of emergency, the hurdles to compliance will be even more 'withering'.

The IA and its allied business groups say while they fully support California's efforts to provide consumers with enhanced privacy protections, the ever-evolving nature of the CCPA's proposed rules, especially in light of the current global crisis, makes the current enforcement date of July 1st a problematic deadline for both businesses and consumers. 'Many companies have instituted mandatory work-from-home measures to limit community spread of the virus. Developing innovative business procedures to comply with brand-new legal requirements is a formidable undertaking on its own, but it is an especially tall order when there are no dedicated, on-site staff available to build and test necessary new systems and processes', the IA added.

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .