You may think California is full left-wing hippies, homeless, or Silicon Valley millionaires. But you probably missed the army of consumer advocates. They pushed through the California Consumer Privacy law which will take effect January 1st and if you don’t have your database and website in order, you could fall victim to stiff penalties and direct consumer lawsuits.
GDPR, Just Wrapped in a New Package
Remember when Europe cracked down on anyone doing business with its citizens for data privacy? This is the United State’s first step. We can thank Facebook and Google for their aggressive data-gathering tactics.
But the most important part of this law is the requirements. If your business hits any one of the three thresholds, you must comply or risk penalties. And trust me as a resident of this state, they WILL hunt you down. It’s not much different than the IRS. It’s easier for them to catch a smaller offender since they probably can’t lawyer up like the big guys.
Thresholds
- Your business makes $25 million in annual revenue,
- You collect the data of 50,000 people in a year, or
- You make half your money by selling personal data to third parties.
Don’t Give Them a Reason to Catch You
The remedy is simple: comply. You can do this by getting your data collection points in order. While that may sound difficult, it really isn’t if you have been managing your lead generation in a systematic way. You need to make sure that your collection pages have a notice to the consumer on what you will be doing with their data. Odds are, you are only sending them emails. If you are selling your names to 3rd parties it’s safer to add an opt-in box (unchecked) that allows them control over whether they “hear from your partners”. And when you do email or otherwise engage them, make sure there is an easy way to unsubscribe. Most email software systems have this built-in.
Compliance Cops When Changing Providers
Sometimes an email provider changes their pricing structure significantly, Mailchimp and Hubspot come to mind, and you may be considering another system. Be very careful when you switch. This and other privacy laws have made all the email platform providers extra vigilant. Take time to warm up your domain authority with your provider before sending large emails otherwise you will look like a spammer and they may shut you down. And trust me when I say, the burden of proof will be on you while you are still paying for their service.
I have no doubt this law WILL eventually go nationwide, so I’m sharing my local wisdom so you can prepare your content marketing practices now.
Check out this detailed article regarding CCPA. Don’t think you can’t be caught by this law.