Keypoint: The AG’s office again signals that the CCPA’s July 1 enforcement deadline will not be extended.
In another sign that the California Attorney General has no plans to delay the CCPA’s July 1, 2020, enforcement deadline, on Friday April 10, 2020, the AG’s office issued a press release reminding California residents of their data privacy rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Attorney General, “[a]s the health emergency leads more people to look online to work, shop, connect with family and friends, and be entertained, it is more important than ever for consumers to know their rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).”
The press release reminds California residents of the CCPA’s right to opt-out of sales, right to delete, and right to know. Relating the right to delete to the pandemic, the release states “[i]f you want to minimize or reduce the data collected by businesses during or after the emergency, you can request that the business delete personal data that it has collected from you.”
The press release was accompanied by a series of tweets by the Attorney General reminding California residents of their CCPA privacy rights.
As we have previously discussed, some organizations requested that the Attorney General delay the CCPA’s July 1 enforcement deadline both because of the COVID-19 pandemic and because the Attorney General has still not published the final CCPA regulations. In response, on March 19, 2020, the AG’s office stated that “right now” it did not intend to delay the enforcement deadline. Friday’s press release not only reinforces that position, but perhaps signals that the AG’s office will not look kindly on businesses that are not complying with the CCPA during the pandemic.
The final CCPA regulations will – presumably – be issued shortly. The AG’s office published the second set of modified regulations on March 11, 2020, and the 15-day comment period closed on March 27, 2020. The AG’s office received 484 pages of written comments during that comment period. In comparison, the AG received 1,731 pages of written comments during the initial 45-day comment period following release of the first version of the proposed regulations and 784 pages of written comments during the 15-day comment period following the release of the first set of modifications.
As of the date of this article (April 13, 2020), there are approximately 11 weeks (79 days) before the July 1 enforcement deadline.