As CPW’s Kyle Fath recently explained to Law360 in an article focusing on California privacy enforcement, “[d]uring the past year, the [California] attorney general’s office has “focused substantially” on the CCPA’s do-not-sell right.” As covered in greater detail at Law360, “[t]his attention has come as little surprise, given the widespread uncertainty that has swirled since the law took effect in January 2020 over whether the sharing of personal information for targeted advertising purposes constitutes a “sale” covered by the CCPA. While the attorney general has not publicly opined whether a “sale” occurs when a third-party cookie provider collects information on a website, the case summaries provided by the regulator indicate that its apparent position is that a “sale” happens when a website owner makes personal information available to third-party cookie providers with which it hasn’t established a service provider relationship, according to Fath. “In view of this new clarity on the ‘sale’ issue, most organizations will need to revisit their current approach to the ‘Do Not Sell’ obligation with respect to digital advertising,” Fath said. Given the attorney general’s recent launch of the tool that allows consumers to lodge complaints with companies that don’t prominently display a way to opt out of data sales, and his push for companies to honor a mechanism known as the Global Privacy Control for consumers to broadly signal to the websites they visit that they want to stop these sales, “it appears likely that there will continue to be a focus on the Do Not Sell issue with AG Bonta,” Fath added.”
Calif. Privacy Ramping Up As Regulation Matures-CPW’s Kyle Fath Talks to Law360
