The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) is the first-of-its kind U.S. law that gives greater privacy rights to consumers who reside in the state. Borrowing many of the core principles of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the act enshrines significant rights for consumers by granting them unprecedented control over their personal information.
Set to go in effect in less than eight months on January 1, 2020, the CCPA forces companies to understand how it will impact the way they collect and process consumers’ personal information. Because of the act’s broad-reaching provisions, confusion exists regarding many of the details, with much of it rooted in a foundational provision: what constitutes personal information (PI) and how that differs from personally identifiable information (PII).
