On June 22, California lawmakers announced Assembly Bill 375, a broad-based consumer privacy bill that is intended to serve as an alternative to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), a far-reaching consumer privacy initiative that is on track to be on the California ballot this November. The chief sponsor of the CCPA, Alastair Mactaggart, has stated that he will withdraw the initiative from the ballot if AB 375 is passed this week.
The bill, which was authored by Assembly Member Ed Chau and Senators Bob Hertzberg and Bill Dodd, borrows many ideas from the CCPA. For instance, AB 375 grants consumers the right to know what personal information a business collects about them and the categories of third parties to which that information is sold or otherwise disclosed. Consumers also would have certain rights to request that businesses not sell their personal information to third parties and to request that businesses delete their personal information. Additionally, businesses would be prohibited from denying service, charging a different price, or offering a different quality of goods or services to consumers that exercise their privacy rights in certain instances.
One provision of AB 375 that goes beyond the initiative is a new requirement that opt-in consent be obtained for the sale of consumer’s personal information if the consumer is less than 16 years old.
As noted above, California legislators have less than a week to pass AB 375 to halt the initiative effort.