Earlier this month, the California Consumer Privacy Act became official, and enforcement begins on July 1st. However a research study Sourcepoint conducted indicates that 15% of digital publishers are not aware of the regulations and 40% have not taken any action to become compliant. If someone flags your company for a violation, you only have 30 days to become compliant – if you are still non-compliant, fines can be as high as $2,500 per record of unintentional violation and $7,500 per record of intentional violation – if you have hundreds or thousands of data records that are in violation, do the math – non-compliance could be very financially detrimental to your business!
Who Is Impacted By CCPA?
Organizations will need to make changes to policies and processes pertaining to the collection, usage and sharing of consumer data not only if they do business in California but also if they sell to California based residents (even if they are based elsewhere). In particular, your organization will be impacted by CCPA if your business meets the following criteria –
- You collect personal information for 50,000 consumers (or more) per year
- You have a gross revenue of $25 million per year
- You earn more than 50% of your revenue by selling consumer data
What Exactly Is CCPA?
CCPA allows Californians to see which personal details are being collected about them by businesses. In particular, CCPA offers California based residents four key rights –
- Consumers can know what personal information is collected, what the information sources are, how the information is used and who the information is shared with – consumers can request data is deleted and can also opt out of allowing the usage of their data
- Consumers can know if a company is selling their data; if yes, consumers can request their data is not sold to third-parties
- Consumers can request a copy of personal information collected specific to them over a period of 1 year before they place a request
- Consumers cannot be discriminated against because they issued the above rights
Additionally, if you are selling / sharing the personal details of someone under the age of 13, parental permission must be obtained beforehand.
How Are Digital Marketers Impacted By CCPA?
Digital marketers deal with a lot of consumer data in order to target audiences more effectively and offer better user-experiences. The key challenge you will face is to offer personalization alongside CCPA compliance. It is imperative to cross-check each marketing channel to assess if data collection is truly compliant. CCPA has a long list of data that is considered sensitive, which includes name, phone, email, social security number, biometrics, browsing history, geolocation, educational details, audio-visual information, details related to products/services purchased, IP address, driver’s license number, passport number, search history, employment details and much more.
In order for digital marketing campaigns to be compliant with CCPA regulations, the following must be addressed –
- You must provide a detailed disclosure regarding personal information you have collected, sold and disclosed within the last 12 months – requests must be acknowledged within 10 days and delivered within 45 days
- Mechanisms must be in place to provide Californians access to the above information and opt-out rights
- Mechanisms must be in place to retain data for some amount of time if a consumer requests their past record
- Mechanisms must be in place to delete data upon request
- You must reveal the categories of personal information being collected for Californians and the purpose
- If you are a business that sells personal information, your Website must contain a prominently displayed link that allows opt-outs
- Your Website must have an updated privacy policy that displays these new rights of Californians – the process for securing details, requesting a data erase and/or opt-out of data sales must be very clear
- Modify / upgrade your contract terms with vendors to ensure CCPA compliance and data security
- Mechanisms must be in place to only collect data for children under the age of 13 with parental consent
If you feel overwhelmed with all of these compliance regulations, download your FREE copy of a handy 6-Point Data Compliance Guide we’ve put together to empower brands just like yours. Be compliant. Be safe!
