The reality is that Prop 24 — also known as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) — gives Californians a whole host of new privacy rights.  In fact, if passed, Prop 24 will give Californians the most comprehensive data protection and privacy law in the United States, and would put Californians on par with the robust privacy rights that Europeans have with their privacy law (the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR). 

In this blog post we will highlight some of the new privacy rights that Prop 24 delivers, or you can listen to Alastair Mactaggart, Chair of Californians for Consumer Privacy, give a quick 1-minute overview of some the new privacy rights.


The Great 8

Prop 24 gives us Californians so many new privacy rights and enhancements to the existing privacy law we have in place here in with our existing law the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  You may recall that Prop 24 represents “Version 2.0” of the CCPA, and like with any good software update, it packs a lot of great new features.   Here are eight examples of what Prop 24 does:

  1. Triples fines for violations of children’s privacy:  Just in the last two years, we’ve seen continued violations of children’s privacy, including this record fine paid by Google/YouTube.  Our children’s privacy MUST be respected.
  2. Limit the use of Sensitive Personal Information:  CPRA introduces a powerful new concept covering your most sensitive personal information.  Under CCPA, you only have the right to stop the sale of your personal information.  CPRA goes much further, and lets you tell businesses not to use your most sensitive information, unless it’s to deliver you a product you are asking for.
  3. Stop businesses from knowing your precise geolocation: Precise geolocation—exactly where you’re standing or driving—is a new concept, and by including it in the definition of your sensitive information, CPRA will let you stop a business tracking you and knowing exactly where you are at all times.
  4. Stopping businesses from profiling you: Are you seeing only certain jobs because of your race, your education, your political leanings?  How do you even know?  Is some algorithm determining your future by only showing you jobs it thinks you’re qualified for?  This new right would allow you to find out about the profiles businesses are collecting about you, and stop the automated processing of your information based on the profiles businesses have created about you.
  5. Right to correct your information:  this lets you correct the information that businesses have collected about you.  Incorrect information online can affect your entire life, and under existing law you have no ability to change it.
  6. Right to have your personal information kept safe:  the CPRA tells businesses that if they are going to collect personal information, then they must keep it secure from theft!  Unfortunately, too many businesses just leave your information lying around in plain text, and who suffers?  You do, when your identity is stolen.  The CPRA also adds “email plus password or security question & answer” to the list of items subject to a private right of action.  Put another way, if your email and password is stolen or hacked due to the negligence of a business, the business could face massive fines —millions or even billions of dollars of fines.
  7. Right to see ALL your information, not just the last 12 months: under CCPA, you can only see the last 12 months of information a business has collected about you. CPRA will require businesses to tell you all the information they’ve collected about you, starting January 1, 2022—everything from then on!
  8. Creation of a new California Privacy Protection Agency: Californians need a one-stop shop to protect their information.  They need somewhere to register their complaints, and ensure big businesses are following this new law. 

We could go on for longer, but hopefully you get a good feel that Prop 24 significantly strengthens privacy rights here in California.  These new privacy rights are needed as big corporations look to water down our existing CCPA law and find new ways to vacuum up and use your personal data.

We urge you to Vote Yes on Privacy and Vote Yes on Prop 24!