Getting ready for the California Consumer Privacy Act: Building on General Data Protection Regulation preparedness

Abstract

Following the introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, several US states are introducing similar privacy laws. Of these, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will be the most far-reaching. The CCPA builds on various consumer privacy principles established with the GDPR, albeit with some important differences, and is likely to act as the template for any forthcoming federal legislation in the USA. This paper examines some of the ways that the CCPA is similar to and differs from the GDPR, and how this affects the way that businesses should prepare for the implementation of the law in 2020. It then considers the level of GDPR preparedness among US businesses as an indication of their readiness to comply with the CCPA, before presenting a set of privacy best practices that businesses should adopt in order to remain compliant with the increasingly wide range of privacy laws being passed around the world.