Four CCPA Amendments Scheduled for Tuesday Senate Judiciary Hearing
The California Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled four of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Amendments for the public hearing next Tuesday, July 9th. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 AM Pacific and continue/restart later in the afternoon at 1:30 PM. There are currently almost 50 bills scheduled to be heard in the committee hearing that day.
The CCPA Amendments on the agenda are AB-874, AB-1146, AB-1355 and AB-1564. All of these amendments were passed by the California State Assembly (house of origin) earlier this year and are now being considered by the Senate which must pass a bill by September 13th for them to go to the California Governor for signature.
Privacy Bills:
AB874 – Publicly Available Information
This proposed bill clarifies the contours of the publicly available information exception to the definition of personal information. Specifically, it eliminates the “purpose” requirement within the exception. As a result, information lawfully made available in federal, state or local government records will be considered “publicly available” and excluded from the definition of personal information.
AB1146 – Vehicle Information Exemption
This bill excludes vehicle information shared in connection with a vehicle repair relating to warranty work or a recall between a new motor vehicle dealer and the vehicle’s manufacturer.
AB1355 – Technical Amendments
AB1355 clarifies various elements of the CCPA text and corrects a few drafting errors.
AB1564 – Toll Free Number Alternative
The CCPA currently requires a business to have two or more designated methods available to consumers to make requests under the law. The business must have a toll-free telephone number. If it has an internet website, it also must provide a means to do so on its website. This proposed CCPA amendment would allow for a business to substitute an email address and physical address for the toll-free telephone number requirement.
There are another five amendments which were passed by the Assembly earlier this year and have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee but are not yet listed on the agenda for a hearing before the mid-July deadline for them to be approved by the policy committee. These include AB-25 (employee data), AB-846 (loyalty programs), AB-873 (deidentified information), AB-981 (insurance exemption), and AB-1416 (four year fraud exemption).
The Senate Judiciary Committee was the committee that introduced SB561 to extend the private right of action in the CCPA to all violations rather than simply consumers that suffer a data breach where the business did not take reasonable security measures. This change was supported by the California Attorney General but the amendment was halted at the Senate fiscal committee.
This could make Tuesday a very interesting day as the Judiciary Committee decides what it will do with the nine CCPA amendments that have been referred to it.