In lieu of how Silicon Valley companies use data for their own financial gain, Alastair Mactaggart, has championed the movement for increased control of users on their data through the landmark California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA.
With recent developments, the protection law would be effective from Jan.1, 2020, in Califonia, as America for a long time has not had any strong data protection law.
The whole law is a conception of real estate developer turned privacy activist, Alastair Mactaggart, who seems very keen about changing the way the Silicon Valley companies use users’ data for financial gain.
Mactaggart has swayed over 600,000 people to support his idea and spent around 3 million USD to let the voters have a say on this.
The CCPA act actually empowers Californians the right to know how a particular company is using their data.
The data further compels companies that require users data to be transparent to their clients as to whom they are selling the data too.
CCPA also gives special protection to minors below 17 as it places a ban on the selling of data of Children.
Companies affected by the CCPA
The CCPA law must be complied too by all companies that have at least $25 million annual revenue and serves California residents.
Alongside this, companies that have personal data of over 45,000 people or that trade in selling data are also compelled to comply with the law.
These companies does not necessarily have to be located in California to fall under these laws or United States.
Insurance institutions, agents, and support organizations in an amendment made in April 2019 are exempted from the CCPA law.
Penalty for non-compliance of CCPA
Companies that fail to act according to the CCPA provisions are going to be fined around $7,500 per record after 30 days of non-compliance once regulators notify them of a violation.
Another financial risk is dependent on individual as they have every right to sue companies that fault the law and the act allows class-action lawsuits for damages.
As currently written, AB 375 allows for penalties of $100 to $750 per consumer per incident, or actual damages, whichever is greater.
Featured image from Youtube
