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The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state-wide data privacy law that regulates how businesses all over the world are allowed to handle the personal information (PI) of California residents. The effective date of the CCPA is January 1, 2020. It is the first law of its kind in the United States. CCPA applies to any for-profit businesses in the world that sells the personal information of more than 50,000 California residents annually, or have annual gross revenue exceeding $25 million, or derives more than 50 percent of its annual revenue from selling the personal information of California residents. Sale of PI is defined in the CCPA as “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.” (1798.140.t1). If a company shares common branding (i.e. shared name, service mark or trademark) with another business that is liable under the CCPA, the company will be subject to CCPA compliance too. Under the CCPA, California residents (“consumers”) are empowered with the right to opt-out of having their data sold to third parties, the right to request disclosure of data already collected, and the right to request deletion of data collected. Additionally, California residents have the right to be notified and the right to equal services and price (i.e. cannot be discriminated against based on their choice to exercise their rights). Failure to comply with the CCPA can result in fines for businesses of $7,500 per violation and $750 per affected user in civil damages for businesses. The power to enforce the CCPA lies with the office of the Attorney General of California, who has until July 2020 to specify enforcement regulation. However, the interim period between January and July 2020 is not a grace period, and businesses are liable for civil lawsuits from their data collection and selling from January 1, 2020. If your business meets any of the three CCPA thresholds above and has an online domain, you are required to implement certain changes to your website. Your website must inform its users at or before the point of data collection about the categories of personal information that it collects and for what purposes. Your website must feature a Do Not Sell My Personal Information link that users can use to opt-out of third-party data sales. If your website has minors under the age of 16 among its users, you are required to obtain their opt-in (consent) before you are allowed to sell or disclose their personal information to third parties. If the minor is under the age of 13, a parent or legal guardian must opt-in for them. Your business must also update its website’s privacy policy to include a description of the consumer’s rights and how to exercise these rights. Your privacy policy must also contain an annually updated list of the categories of personal information that your company collects, sells and discloses. Complete details, plus the Full Text of CCPA can be found on OUR FORUM.