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| Getty Images |
GUEST BLOG / By Aaron
Mak, Slate technology writer--Starting New Year’s Day, you may have noticed
a small but momentous change to the websites you visit: a button or link,
probably at the bottom of the page, reading “Do Not Sell My Personal
Information.”
The
change is one of many going into effect Jan. 1, 2020, thanks to a sweeping new
data privacy law known as the California Consumer Privacy Act. The California
law essentially empowers consumers to access the personal data that companies
have collected on them, to demand that it be deleted, and to prevent it from
being sold to third parties. Since it’s a lot more work to create a separate
infrastructure just for California residents to opt out of the data collection
industry, these requirements will transform the internet for everyone.
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| Aaron Mak, Slate.com |
Ahead
of the January deadline, tech companies are scrambling to update their privacy
policies and figure out how to comply with the complex requirements. The CCPA
will only apply to businesses that earn more than $25 million in gross revenue,
that collect data on more than 50,000 people, or for which selling consumer
data accounts for more than 50 percent of revenue. The companies that meet
these qualifications are expected to collectively spend a total of $55 billion
upfront to meet the new standards, in addition to $16 billion over the next
decade. Major tech firms have already added a number of user features over the
past few months in preparation. In early December, Twitter rolled out a privacy
center where users can learn more about the company’s approach to the CCPA and
navigate to a dashboard for customizing the types of info that the platform is
allowed to use for ad targeting. Google has also created a protocol that blocks
websites from transmitting data to the company, which users can take advantage
of by downloading an opt-out add-on. Facebook, meanwhile, is arguing that it
does not need to change anything because it does not technically “sell”
personal information. Companies must at least set up a webpage and a toll-free
phone number for fielding data requests.
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