Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On April 2, 2024, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) Enforcement Division issued its first Enforcement Advisory, titled “Applying Data Minimization to Consumer Requests.”  The purpose of this Enforcement Advisory is to address the CPPA Enforcement Division’s observation that some businesses are asking consumers “to provide excessive and unnecessary personal information in response to requests that consumers make under the CCPA.” The Enforcement Advisory serves as a reminder to businesses to apply the data minimization principle to each purpose for which they collect, use, retain and share consumers’ personal information, including information that businesses collect when processing consumers’ CCPA requests.  The Enforcement Advisory provides further guidance on how businesses may comply with the principle, noting, however, that in general, Enforcement Advisories “do not implement, interpret or make specific the law enforced or administered by the [CPPA], establish substantive policy or rights, constitute legal advice or reflect the views of the [CPPA]’s Board.” The Advisory notes several other caveats, reiterating the general point that  Enforcement Advisories do not have the force of law or safe harbor for CCPA compliance purposes.  However, the guidance provides illustrative hypotheticals and substantive insight into how the CPPA may approach enforcement in certain areas and “encourages” businesses to voluntarily comply with the law.

On March 8, 2024, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) Board discussed and voted 3-2 in favor of further edits to revised draft regulations regarding risk assessments and automated decisionmaking technology (“ADMT”), which were released in February 2024, but did not initiate the formal rulemaking process for these regulations, which is anticipated to begin in July 2024.

On November 27, 2023, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) published its draft regulations on automated decisionmaking technology (“ADMT”). The regulations propose a broad definition for ADMT that includes “any system, software, or process—including one derived from machine-learning, statistics, or other data-processing or artificial intelligence—that processes personal information and uses computation as whole or part of a system to make or execute a decision or facilitate human decisionmaking.” ADMT also would include profiling, which would mean the “automated processing of personal information to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person and in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements.”

The California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) Board (the “Board”) announced an upcoming public meeting to take place over Zoom on Friday, December 8, 2023 at 9 am PST.

On September 14, 2023, the California legislature passed S.B. 362 (“Act”), a bill that would impose new requirements on data brokers and grant residents new rights designed to facilitate control over their personal data. S.B. 362 is now awaiting signature by California Governor Gavin Newsom. The Act aims to close a loophole in the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) that allows consumers to request that data brokers delete personal information obtained directly from the consumer, but does not require data brokers to delete personal information obtained from other sources. 

On August 29, 2023, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) Board issued draft regulations on Risk Assessment and Cybersecurity Audit (the “Draft Regulations”). The CPPA Board will discuss the Draft Regulations during a public meeting on September 8, 2023.

On Monday, March 27, 2023, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL) at Hunton Andrews Kurth submitted a response to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)’s Invitation for Preliminary Comments on Proposed Rulemaking for cybersecurity audits, risk assessments and automated decisionmaking.

On March 3, 2023, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) Board held a public meeting regarding the Agency’s priorities, budget, the status of the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”) rulemaking process and the activities of the CPPA subcommittees. The meeting focused on the following topics:

On October 28-29, 2022, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) held a Board Meeting to discuss the modified proposed regulations promulgated for compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA/CPRA”), as well as the remainder of the rulemaking process. The CPPA previously released the modified proposed regulations on October 17, 2022.  

On July 28, 2022, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) Board held a special public meeting to discuss agency staff’s recommendations that the Board formally oppose the draft federal American Data Privacy and Protection Act (“ADPPA”). The latest version of the ADPPA recently was voted out of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, and is set to advance to the House Floor.

On June 16, 2022, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Justice Minister David Lametti introduced the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 (Bill C-27), a bill that would overhaul Canada’s existing legal framework for personal information protection in the private sector. In the Canadian government’s news release, Industry Minister Champagne stated that Bill C-27, if enacted, will “give businesses clear rules to support their efforts to innovate with data and will introduce a new regulatory framework for the responsible development of artificial intelligence systems, while recognizing the need to protect young people and their information.” Bill C-27 is similar to former Bill C-11, which died in the 2021 legislative session. 

On May 26, 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a press release reminding health app providers that California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (“CMIA”) applies to mobile apps that are designed to store medical information, which includes health apps such as fertility trackers. The press release reminds health app providers that the CMIA requires businesses to preserve the confidentiality of medical information and prohibits the disclosure of medical information without proper authorization. It also urges mobile app providers to adopt robust security and privacy measures to protect reproductive health information. According to the press release, this should include, at a minimum, “assess[ing] the risks associated with collecting and maintaining abortion-related information that could be leveraged against persons seeking to exercise their healthcare rights.”