What Is the Ccpa and Why Should Litigators Care?
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Author | By Diana Iketani Iorlano, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM |
By Diana Iketani Iorlano, CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM
Diana Iketani Iorlano is a privacy lawyer, business litigator, and outside general counsel to companies rangingfrom small businesses to large corporations. She is the Founder and Managing Attorney of Iketani Law in El Segundo and is a member of the Solo and Small Firm and Litigation Sections of CLA. Diana is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional/ U.S. (CIPP/US), Certified Information Privacy Professional/ Europe (CIPP/E), and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM).
In recent years, data privacy in the U.S. and California has gone from an "emerging" topic to a "mainstream" one. This is especially true with the passage of a new consumer privacy law called the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA; Civ. Code, § 1798.100 et seq.). Effective January 1, 2020, the goal of the CCPA is to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for California residents. However, due to the state's outsized influence as a technology hub and the world's fifth largest economy, and because Congress to date has been unable to pass a comprehensive federal data protection law that would preempt California's new law, the CCPA has become the de facto national data protection standard for almost any size company that collects data about consumers.
Similar to its European data privacy counterpart, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the CCPA has major financial and legal implications for companies that do business involving California residents, ranging from large technology and social media companies to Adtech and even to small and medium-sized businesses located both in and out of the state. Due to hastily drafted definitions, the CCPA emerges as simultaneously broader, yet more specific, than GDPR.
With a compliance deadline looming and many companies reporting that they are not ready for the CCPA, litigators are unsure about exactly how the act may affect their work. While there is a need to defer certain CCPA-related work to data privacy professionals, litigators can play a crucial role helping their clients navigate the rough waters of the CCPA by acting as risk managers and advising clients how the CCPA will affect both consumer lawsuits and government enforcement actions. In fact, business opportunities abound for the savvy litigator who understands the new law and how it affects her clients.
In 2018, the California Legislature hurriedly passed, and Governor Jerry Brown signed the act to prevent a stricter initiative sponsored by real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart from going to the ballot. Unsatisfied with the version passed, Mr. Mactaggart has circulated a new privacy ballot measure for November 2020 that some have dubbed "CCPA 2.0."
[Page 24]
In October 2019, the office of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released proposed regulations under the CCPA that are meant to clarify and further the purposes of the act. Unfortunately, to the dismay of many data privacy professionals, the proposed regulations added confusion and even expanded the scope of the original act. As of the date of this article, the Attorney General is still soliciting public comment on the regulations and they have not yet been finalized. As a result, many companies making an earnest attempt to comply with the CCPA will continue to adjust their...
To continue reading
Request your trial