Privacy Policy Laws Are Changing!The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a new law concerning data privacy and it applies to certain businesses who collect personal information from California residents. This new law goes into effect on January 1, 2020 and will be fully enforced by July 1, 2020 - but don't wait until then. It's similar to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is in effect for European citizens. This law applies if you are a business that has a website and if you target residents of California as consumers.
The CCPA law means that California residents who visit your website need to have access to personal information you collect on your website along with the right to be informed about what their information is used for. There's also the right to portability, the right to be deleted, the right to opt-out, the right to opt-in, and the right to not be discriminated against (learn more).
When you look into this law, it might appear that this law only applies to bigger businesses but since personal information does include IP addresses, any website getting over 50,000 or more visits (yearly) from Californians could be held liable. That's just over 4,000 per month and many of our clients get that much traffic.
This trend in privacy policy laws is important to keep up with or you may risk getting fined $7,500 or more.
In addition to GDPR and CCPA, there are similar laws coming down the pike from other states. Be ready to make legal changes each time these laws are signed. Consulting a lawyer (paying their fees) and making updates to stay in compliance can be a lot of work that most business owners aren't ready for.
Webstix has partnered with Termageddon to offer a service where your Privacy Policy page is automatically kept up to date as these new laws go into effect!
It's a great service and it's something our clients love. When we develop websites, they often ask what to do when we ask for content for their Privacy Policy page. Being able to offer a Privacy Policy page that automatically stays up to date is an amazing service to offer because it saves so much time and money.
Set up is super simple, too! It's truly a "set and forget" system to get you back to running your business... you know, doing what you do best.
