California will very soon have a whole lot more control over online data within their state.
Jerry Brown, the California Governor, has recently signed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. This is an online privacy law that prohibits large tech companies to use the data of Californians for their own interests.
The law will actually take effect only in 2020, and will require any tech companies that have annual revenues of over $25 million to share specifically what kind of data they are collecting from consumers.
They will also have to share information about any third parties that they have given access to the information.
Californians will then have the option of opting out of having their data sold, and they will not be penalized by companies by law. Companies are not even allowed to limit their use of the service for choosing to withdraw their data.
Users under the age of 16 however, will have no choice but to agree to have their data sold, and will be opting-in. According to this new law, companies can be fined if they do not do enough to protect the personal information of consumers.
In recent times, consumer privacy has been getting much more attention, however not much has been done yet in the U.S.
The new privacy act in California is seen as the toughest law on data privacy in the nation so far. Hopefully it could inspire other states to take similar moves.