California Passes Consumer Privacy Protection Act Aimed At Tech Companies
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As the debate over internet privacy heats up across the globe, California lawmakers are targeting tech giants, in a state where many of them are based.
Governor Jerry Brown signed off on a comprehensive internet privacy and data break protection bill Thursday that promises to protect internet users' personal information.
"It's a huge issue. Technology has come up with ways, with these funny phones, to count our steps, see locations, see your heart rate... they can use it to sell," said Senator Bob Hertzberg (D- Los Angeles).
Hertzberg said that personal information will no longer be collected and monetized, under his bill-now written into law.
"This would be the most far-reaching privacy bill across the country," Hertzberg said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 unanimously passed both houses, and lawmakers say the measure regulates how tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter collect and make money using consumers' personal information.
Proponents of the bill say the plan lets people take control of their personal information online, from your medical history to your shopping habits, that may be floating around on the internet. And lawmakers are hoping that this bill will lead to a nationwide change.
Privacy experts say the act is necessary to stop the sale of personal information on the web.
The bill promises to accomplish three main things. First, find out what information tech companies are collecting and where they're selling that information. Second, to tell the tech companies to delete and stop selling personal information, and banning those companies from selling data on users under 16 years old. And third, to make businesses secure information to prevent identity theft.
Alastair Mactaggart is the wealthy bay area real estate developer behind the now removed ballot measure advocating for the same protections as the privacy act.
"I do have three little kids, and when I think about the world they're growing up in, I can think of few more important issues," Mactaggart said.
Mactaggart spent three million dollars of his own money to get the measure on the November ballot, but he agreed to a compromise with the tech industry, allowing the legislature to vote instead of California voters.
"I'll take certainty over uncertainty. We heard that Google alone had committed forty million dollars to fighting us," Mactaggart said.
Tech giants have strongly pushed back against this measure, and their lobbying group, The Intranet Association, declined to speak with CBS13 but did release an opposition letter to new privacy act.
"[The bill] exposes California businesses to massive, additional liability without providing any corresponding benefit to consumers," the opposition letter said.