After a long wait, the California Attorney General’s (AG) office held a news conference on October 10, 2019, and published proposed regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Companies gearing up for CCPA’s January 1, 2020, effective date should quickly review and assess the proposed regulations’ potential effects on their operations and consider attending upcoming public hearings or submitting public comments by December 6, 2019.

The AG’s rulemaking process has primarily focused on the issues on which the CCPA explicitly requires the AG to adopt implementing regulations. Thus, the newly proposed regulations cover:

• Specific procedural requirements related to consumers’ requests to optout of the sale of their personal information;

• The manner in which businesses are required to provide easily understandable notices (notice at collection, notice of the right to opt out of sale, and notice regarding financial incentive offerings) to consumers;

• Rules governing a business’s response to consumer requests for information or requests for deletion, as well as mechanisms to verify the identity of individuals making requests;
  Additional requirements on obtaining parental authorization or valid consent from minors;

• Additional restrictions on service providers’ processing of personal information; and

• Specific recordkeeping requirements.

In conjunction with the public comment period, the AG has also announced four upcoming public hearings in major California cities. A copy of the schedule can be found here. Interested parties should take advantage of this opportunity and register in advance.