On June 28, 2018, California lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 375 and Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, a privacy law that grants consumers a range of rights with respect to their personal information online. This marks the advent of a new era of consumer privacy protection that will have the force of law in the U.S. As we previously reported here, AB 375 was proposed as an alternative to an initiative that was expected to be on the November ballot. Now that AB 375 has passed, the initiative has been pulled from the ballot. This outcome is a win for both industry and consumers. The initiative was well-intentioned but deeply flawed in many ways, and it would have hurt both consumers and industry. Digital media evolves, and the legislature needs to be free to regulate based on current facts. The initiative would have locked in concepts that do not work well today. With the passing of AB 375, there is the ability to work out the details of the law. This is not to say that the status quo will be maintained for industry; the Act changes the landscape of privacy practices in California markedly.

For a summary of AB 375, see our chart here.