The most comprehensive data privacy law in the United States, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), will take effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA is an expansive step in U.S. data privacy law, as it enumerates new consumer rights regarding collection and use of personal information, along with corresponding duties for businesses that trade in such information.

While the CCPA is a state law, its scope is sufficiently broad that it will apply to many businesses that may not currently consider themselves to be under the purview of California law. In addition, in the wake of the CCPA, at least a dozen other states have introduced their own comprehensive data privacy legislation, and there is heightened consideration and support for a federal law to address similar issues.

Below, we examine the contours of the CCPA to help you better understand the applicability and requirements of the new law. While portions of the CCPA remain subject to further clarification, the inevitable challenges of compliance, coupled with the growing appetite for stricter data privacy laws in the United States generally, mean that now is the time to ensure that your organization is prepared for the CCPA.

Does the CCPA apply to my business?

Many businesses may rightly wonder if a California law even applies to them, especially if they do not have operations in California. As indicated above, however, the CCPA is not necessarily limited in scope to businesses physically located in California. The law will have an impact throughout the United States and, indeed, worldwide.

The CCPA will have broad reach because it applies to each for-profit business that collects consumers' personal information, does business in California, and satisfies at least one of three thresholds:

• Has annual gross revenues in excess of $25 million; or

• Alone or in combination, annually buys, receives for commercial purposes, sells, or shares for commercial purposes, the personal information of 50,000 or more California consumers; or

• Derives 50 percent or more of its annual revenues from selling consumers' personal information

While the CCPA is limited in its application to California consumers, due to the size of the California economy and its population numbers, the act will effectively apply to any data-driven business with operations in the United States.

What is considered "personal information" under the CCPA?

The CCPA's definition of "personal information" is likely the most expansive interpretation of the term in U.S. privacy law. Per the text of the law, personal information is any "information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household."

The CCPA goes on to note that while traditional personal identifiers such as name, address, Social Security number, passport, and the like are certainly personal information, so are a number of other categories that may not immediately come to mind, including professional or employment-related information, geolocation data, biometric data, educational information, internet activity, and even inferences drawn from the sorts of data identified above.

As a practical matter, if your business collects any information that could reasonably be linked back to an individual consumer, then you are likely collecting personal information according to the CCPA.

When does a business "collect" personal information under the CCPA?

To "collect" or the "collection" of personal information under the CCPA is any act of "buying, renting, gathering, obtaining, receiving, or accessing any personal information pertaining to a consumer by any means." Such collection can be active or passive, direct from the consumer or via the purchase of consumer data sets. If your business is collecting personal information directly from consumers, then at or before the point of collection the CCPA imposes a notice obligation on your business to inform consumers about the categories of information to be collected and the purposes for which such information will (or may) be used.

To reiterate, if your business collects any information that could reasonably be linked back to an individual, then you are likely collecting personal information according to the CCPA.

If a business collects personal information but never sells any of it, does the CCPA still apply?

Yes. While there are additional consumer rights related to the sale of personal information, the CCPA applies to businesses that collect personal information solely for internal purposes, or that otherwise do not disclose such information.

What new rights does the CCPA give to California consumers?

The CCPA gives California consumers four primary new rights: the right to receive information on privacy practices and access information, the right to demand deletion of their personal information, the right to prohibit the sale of their information, and the right not to be subject to price discrimination based on their invocation of any of the new rights specified above.

What new obligations does a business have regarding these new consumer rights?

Businesses that fall under the purview of the CCPA have a number of new obligations under the law:

• A business must take certain steps to assist individual consumers with exercising their rights under the CCPA. This must be accomplished by providing a link on the business's homepage titled "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" and a separate landing page for the same. In addition, a business must update its privacy policy (or policies), or a California-specific portion of the privacy policy, to include a separate link to the new "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" page.

A business also must provide at least two mechanisms for consumers to exercise their CCPA rights by offering, at a minimum, a dedicated web page for receiving and processing such requests (the CCPA is silent on whether this web page must be separate from or can be combined with the "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" page), and a toll-free 800 number to receive the same.

• Upon receipt of a verified consumer request to delete personal information, the business must delete that consumer's personal information within 45 days.

• Upon receipt of a verified consumer request for information about the collection of that consumer's personal information, a business must provide the consumer with a report within 45 days that includes the following information from the preceding 12 months:

  • Categories of personal information that the business has collected about the consumer;

  • Specific pieces of personal information that the business possesses about the consumer;

  • Categories of sources from which the business received personal information about the consumer;

  • A corporate statement detailing the commercial reason (or reasons) that the business collected such personal information about the consumer; and

  • The categories of third parties with whom the business has shared the consumer's personal information.

• Upon receipt of a verified consumer request for information about the sale of that consumer's personal information, a business must provide the consumer with a report within 45 days that includes the following information from the preceding 12 months:

  • Categories of personal information that the business has collected about the consumer;

  • Categories of personal information that the business has sold about the consumer;

  • Categories of third parties to whom the business has sold the consumer's personal information; and

  • The categories of personal information about the consumer that the business disclosed to a third party (or parties) for a business purpose.

• Finally, a business must further update its privacy policy (or policies), or the California-specific section of such policy(s), to:

  • Identify all new rights afforded consumers by the CCPA;

  • Identify the categories of personal information that the business has collected in the preceding 12 months;

  • Include a corporate statement detailing the commercial reason (or reasons) that the business collected such personal information about the consumer;

  • Identify the categories of personal information that the business has sold in the prior 12 months, or the fact that the business has not sold any such personal information in that time; and

  • Note the categories of third parties with whom a business has shared personal information in the preceding 12 months.

What about employee data gathered by employers for internal workplace purposes?

As currently drafted, nothing in the CCPA carves out an exception for employee data gathered by employers. A "consumer" is simply defined as a "natural person who is a California resident …," so the law would presumably treat employees like anyone else. However, the California legislature recently passed Bill AB 25, which excludes from the CCPA information collected about a person by a business while the person is acting as a job applicant, employee, owner, officer, director, or contractor of the business, to the extent that information is collected and used exclusively in the employment context. Bill AB 25 also provides an exception for emergency contact information and other information pertaining to the administration of employee benefits. The bill awaits the governor's signature – he has until October 13, 2019 to sign.

But not so fast – Bill AB 25 only creates a one-year reprieve for employers, rather than a permanent exception. The exceptions listed above will expire on January 1, 2021. By that time, the legislature may choose to extend the exceptions indefinitely, or businesses should be prepared to fully comply with the CCPA.

California employers would thus be wise to start considering the type of employee data they collect, and whether that information may eventually become subject to the CCPA's requirements (either on January 1, 2021 or thereafter). Personal information is likely to be present in an employee's job application, browsing history, and information related to payroll processing, to name a few areas. It also includes biometric data, such as fingerprints scanned for time-keeping purposes. Employers who collect employees' biometric information, for example, would be well advised to review their biometric policies so that eventual compliance with the CCPA can be achieved gradually during this one-year grace period.

Notwithstanding this new legislation, there remains little clarity as to how the law will ultimately be applied in the employer-employee context, if and when the exceptions expire. Employers are encouraged to err on the side of caution and to reach out to experienced legal counsel for further guidance if they satisfy any one of the above thresholds.

What are the penalties for violation of the CCPA?

Violations of the CCPA are enforced by the California Attorney General's office, which can issue civil monetary fines of up to $2,500 per violation, or $7,500 for each intentional violation. Currently, the California AG's office must provide notice of any alleged violation and allow for a 30-day cure period before issuing any fine.

Are there any exceptions to the CCPA?

Yes, there are a number of exceptions. First, the CCPA only applies to California consumers and businesses that meet the threshold(s) identified above. If a business operates or conducts a transaction wholly outside of California then the CCPA does not apply.

There are also certain enumerated exceptions to account for federal law, such that the CCPA is pre-empted by HIPAA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act as it applies to personal information sold to or purchased from a credit reporting agency, and information subject to the Driver's Privacy Protection Act.

Would it be fair to say that the CCPA is not very clear, and maybe even a bit confusing?

Yes, it would. The CCPA was drafted, debated, and enacted into law very quickly in the face of some legislative and ballot-driven pressures. As a result, the bill as enacted is a bit confusing and even contains sections that appear to contradict its other parts. The drafters of the CCPA, however, recognized this and have included provisions for the California AG's office to provide further guidance on its intent and meaning. Amendment efforts also remain underway. As such, it is likely that the CCPA will be an evolving law for at least the short term.

Regardless, the CCPA will impose real-world requirements effective January 1, 2020, and the new wave of consumer privacy legislation it has inspired at the state and federal level is likely to bring even more of the same. It is important to address these issues now, rather than when it is too late.