Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)

Until late August 2023, California’s data protection law, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or “CCPA,” only provided for future rulemaking on automated decision-making, including profiling, on risk assessments, and on cybersecurity audits. However, during a board meeting it held this past Friday, September 8th, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA” or “Agency”), which shares enforcement authority of the CCPA with the California Attorney General, discussed a new set of draft regulations (“Regs”) it released for Agency discussion purposes in late August 2023. While not yet part of the official rulemaking, the draft and the discussions around it provides direction on its upcoming rulemaking on these topics. We will refer to the draft and related commentary as the “Roadmap.” Most notably, the Roadmap proposes that condensed versions of assessments and audits completed by businesses pursuant to their CCPA obligations be filed with the CPPA and sets forth detailed obligations surrounding such assessments and audits. The implication of this is that it may become obvious to the Agency which companies are or are not conducting assessments or audits and thus complying with their CCPA obligations. It may also provide the Agency an easily accessible way to review the evaluate businesses’ practices, especially with regard to higher risk processing activities. Furthermore, the Agency’s Roadmap suggests assessment requirements that not only incorporate, but exceed, what is required in the Colorado regulations, including risk / harm assessments of any monitoring of personnel or students, or monitoring of consumers in public places. We will be co-hosting a webinar with Ankura to take a deeper dive into what companies should be doing regarding assessments and audits. Register here to join us on October 18 to learn more.Continue Reading California’s Potential Approach to Regulations on Risk Assessments and Cybersecurity Audits Could Be a Game Changer

In 2020, when the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) came into effect, the privacy landscape in the US changed forever. Fast forward three years, we now have close to a dozen states that have passed consumer privacy laws, with the second generation of consumer privacy laws giving particular attention to sensitive data. In particular, there is an emerging trend, in both new legislation and enforcement of existing privacy and consumer protection regimes, towards a focus on the collection, use, and sharing or selling of health-related personal information, specifically information that is outside the scope of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).[1] The effect is a restriction on what publishers, advertisers, and other commercial enterprises can do with consumer health information, often broadly defined to include any past, present or future health status or inference regardless of sensitivity (e.g., acne or a headache). These developments include:
Continue Reading Health (and Health-ish) Data and Advertising Under Scrutiny

As of July 1, four states’ privacy laws will be effective and enforceable – the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA) (collectively, CCPA), effective since January 1, becomes enforceable on that date; the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) has been effective and enforceable since January 1; and, on July 1, the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) and Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) are both effective and enforceable.

There are a number of compliance obligations that overlap among these laws where prior compliance efforts for the original CCPA in 2020, and in relation to its updates for January 1 of this year, will suffice for compliance with the other, non-California laws. This said, Colorado’s regulations, promulgated on March 15, 2023, materially deviate from the CCPA in a number of consequential areas in a way that likely requires companies to revisit their January 2023 privacy notices and practices. Now is also a good time to address CPRA, CPA, CTDPA and VCDPA compliance posture generally. While some businesses plan to wait until their end-of-year review and update process, when they can also assess the many additional state laws that have or will pass this year, delaying compliance until then risks enforcement actions, particularly by California and Colorado regulators (interestingly, Connecticut’s Attorney General recently released an FAQ).

This top-level summary of key considerations outlines the issues we are finding that clients have often overlooked in their January 2023 updates.
Continue Reading Are You July-1-READY? 2023 Privacy Laws and Regulations Call for Revisiting Your 2022 End-of-Year Compliance Efforts

With several consumer privacy laws and regulations going into effect this year, businesses need to be conducting and documenting formal assessments of their data practices, known as “Data Protection Impact Assessments” or “DPIAs.” We previously discussed DPIA requirements under the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), Connecticut’s Public Act No. 22-15 (“CTPA”), California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), and Colorado Privacy Rights Act (“CPA”) here, and DPIA requirements under the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (“CAADCA”) and New York City’s Local Law 144 (“Local Law 144”) here.
Continue Reading Navigating Data Privacy Assessments Amid New State Laws

This year has widened the landscape of consumer privacy protections, with dozens of comprehensive privacy bills moving through state legislatures and becoming enacted. So far in 2023, Iowa’s Act Relating to Consumer Data Protection (“Iowa Privacy Law”) and Indiana’s Consumer Data Protection Act (“ICDPA”) were signed into law. These two laws join the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), Colorado Privacy Rights Act (“CPA”), Connecticut’s Public Act No. 22-15 (“CTPA”), and Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”) in the state comprehensive consumer privacy law framework. The Iowa Privacy Law becomes effective on January 1, 2025, and the ICDPA becomes effective on July 1, 2026. The VCDPA and CPRA (amending the California Consumer Privacy Act or “CCPA”) went into effect on January 1, 2023, while the CPA and CTPA go into effect on July 1, 2023. The UCPA will go into effect December 31, 2023.
Continue Reading Data Protection Impact Assessments: Are You Ready?

On April 13, 2023, the Indiana legislature passed Senate Bill 5 (“SB 5”)—more commonly referred to as the Indiana Consumer Data Privacy Act or “Indiana CDPA”—sending the legislation to Governor Eric Holcomb’s desk for signature. Governor Holcomb has until Thursday, April 20 to act on the bill. The Indiana CDPA will become law either if the governor signs the bill or takes no action before the April 20 deadline.
Continue Reading Follow the Leader: Indiana Becomes Latest State to Enact Consumer Privacy Statute

On January 1st of this year, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”) and amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) went into effect. Later this year, the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”), Connecticut’s Public Act No. 22-15 (known as the “Connecticut Privacy Act” or “CTPA”), and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”) will go into effect as well. Aside from the UCPA, these laws will obligate covered entities to document and assess certain processing activities in formal data protection assessments, which will be available to regulators. The purpose is to require companies to look critically at high-risk data processing activities and avoid unjustifiable risks and negative impacts on data subjects. Assessments can also serve the purpose of maintaining current data inventories and retention schedules and ensuring that processing is not inconsistent with the notified purposes at the time of collection.
Continue Reading 2023 State Privacy Laws and Regulations Bring Extensive Data Protection Assessment Requirements

On March 15, 2023, after five public input sessions, a rulemaking hearing, and over 130 written comments, the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”) rules were officially finalized when the Colorado Attorney General’s Office completed its review and submitted them to the Secretary of State. The final rules will be published later this month and go into effect on the same day as the statute, July 1, 2023.
Continue Reading Colorado Privacy Act Rules Finalized; To Be in Effect July 1

Part 1 of How to Approach DPAs in view of Final CCPA Regs: A Series

This is the first in our series of blog posts on top considerations for approaching data processing terms required under the state privacy laws that have, or will, come into effect this year, namely the California Consumer Privacy Act, as…

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and IAB Tech Lab have proposed updates their industry level agreements and privacy signal program to support the efforts of marketers, agencies, publishers, and ad tech companies to comply with the US state privacy laws going into effect in 2023. The comment period on the updates is open until October 27.
Continue Reading Ad Industry Group Modifies Its Compliance Program to Address 2023 US State Privacy Laws