It is likely that 2018 will be looked back upon as an inflection point with regard to privacy rights, ecommerce and the development of the internet. First, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (“FOSTA”) was signed into law by President Trump, striking down many of the free speech protections websites had come to rely upon under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Next, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) went into effect, imposing broad obligations on any company that collects personal information from European Union residents and empowering European consumers with new rights. And most recently, on June 28, 2018, the California Legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), one of the most significant privacy rights statutes ever enacted in the United States.
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