The California Consumer Privacy Act and its Implications

It will be interesting to see the effects of the CCPA (the California Consumer Privacy Act) on digital privacy here in the United States, and its broader implications for the major tech players it is now hard to imagine life without.

https://www.wired.com/story/california-privacy-law-tech-lobby-bills-weaken/

The legislation, which gives residents the ability to request the data being collected on them and decline to have this personal data sold to third parties is remarkable in that it puts so much power back in the hands of the consumer to control their own digital footprints. Importantly, the CCPA changes the conversation about how we think about ownership of personal data here in the United States and could be a landmark precedent as other states such as New York and Nevada consider enacting similar consumer protections.

Unsurprisingly, tech behemoths such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple have been working hard to carve out exceptions to the law for special business groups, to the dismay of privacy advocates. Consumer protection groups have every right to be concerned about opaque data brokerage practices, with consumers having little control over where their personal data ends up. At the same time, it is almost equally troubling to imagine a world where the likes of Google and Facebook are no longer able to take advantage of their most important assets: their data. If Google or Facebook were no longer able to amass such a detailed and nuanced view of each of their users, given increased transparency as to how this data was collected or souring public opinion, they could lose their edge in being able to deliver highly effective targeted digital ads. Without this effective targeting, digital ads hosted by such publishers could become less lucrative, especially as marketers have a less detailed picture of their own target audiences. With tech giants such as Facebook and Google becoming less lucrative, one wonders how long such businesses would be able to continue offering free services that have become so integral in daily life such as WhatsApp or Gmail.

Ultimately life online requires a bit of give and take, ceding some rights to privacy to enjoy a wealth of free digital services. Unless consumers are really willing to pull out their pocketbooks to pay for these services we take for granted, we should be careful not to push the privacy concerns too far.