New project, publications unpack California Consumer Privacy Act

By Monica Steinisch

Consumer Action and Consumer Federation of America (CFA) recently created a consumer guide for Californians about their California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) rights and how to exercise them. A webinar for consumer educators from community-based organizations, consumer and privacy groups, and consumer agencies that operate in California will also be offered later this year. The new resources, as well as a revealing survey, are part of the California Privacy Initiative, a project that Consumer Action and CFA launched with support from the Rose Foundation to educate Californians about the law and encourage them to exercise their CCPA rights.

All materials are available on both the Consumer Action website and the CFA website.

The CCPA, which took effect in January 2020, gives California residents important rights, including the right to see the personal information businesses have collected about them, the right to delete some of that information, and the right to ask businesses not to sell it. But a survey of Californians commissioned by Consumer Action and CFA revealed that while more than two-thirds of respondents had seen a notice about their CCPA rights on the websites of businesses they visited in the previous 12 months, many had not exercised the law’s three key rights, and the top reason given for not doing so was that they did not realize they could.

Other key findings from the survey of 1,507 California adults conducted in October 2021 include:

• Nine out of 10 survey respondents said that businesses should be required to get their permission if they want to collect, use or share their personal information for any purpose other than to provide the product or service they requested.
• Far more consumers knew that they could ask a business not to sell their personal information (largely because of the prominent notice required by the law) than knew they could ask to see the information collected about them or have it deleted.
• Compared against the responses of older and White people, younger, Black and Hispanic Californians more frequently said they did not know they could make these requests. More survey respondents at the lower end of the income and educational scales also gave that reason for not making these requests.
• Survey participants who did make these requests were not entirely satisfied with the businesses’ responses. Of those who asked to see or delete their data, 73 percent were very or somewhat satisfied with the responses; 71 percent of those who asked for their data not to be sold were very or somewhat satisfied with the responses. More than a quarter were not too satisfied or not satisfied at all.

Read an executive summary of the survey findings here. The full survey, with more details, is here.

The fact sheet, Take Action! Exercise your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, explains who and what is covered by the CCPA, describes how consumers can exercise their rights, and offers tips for keeping personal data under wraps. The publication is available for free download in English now. Spanish and Chinese versions soon will be available. The webinar for consumer educators is being planned for the spring of 2022.