On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) came into effect. This law contains a set of criteria a website must meet in order to be compliant. But what does that mean for your company?
Under the CCPA, companies have strict guidelines about the types of data they collect from customers, and what they can do with it once they’ve collected it. Companies in violation of CCPA website compliance may be subject to fines, or even lawsuits.
Why CCPA Compliance is important
Since the law concerns companies doing business in California, it’s important to consider CCPA website compliance if you want to do any sort of widespread business. As such, CCPA compliance solutions need a little bit of forethought to be successful.
Our handy CCPA compliance checklist will offer the basics of what the CCPA is, what it does, and how to know if it affects you. If you have questions, want additional information, or just want an expert opinion, Split Reef offers CCPA compliance consulting for your business or website.
Do You Plan to do Business in California?
Technically, the CCPA is a California state law, but any company, even those overseas, are subject to its conditions if they plan on doing business in the state. If you just have a small, local business, say, in South Dakota, perhaps CCPA website compliance isn’t foremost on your mind. But if you do business with California residents, and especially if you collect any data from customers, then the law could very easily affect you.
Who is Affected by the CCPA?
Because some of the criteria involve companies with sizeable customer bases and annual revenue, major corporations are most at risk of being in violation of CCPA website compliance. However, that doesn’t mean that small businesses shouldn’t consider CCPA compliance solutions.
$25 Million Revenue Annually
If your company earns revenue of at least $25 million a year and has customers in California, you are subject to the terms of the CCPA. But that’s not the only qualifying factor to keep in mind.
Collect Data from 50,000 Customers
If your company collects data from 50,000 customers, you should also consider seeking CCPA compliance consulting.
Selling Customer Data
Whether your company is large or small, if you make money selling customer data, you may want to look into CPA compliance tools. Regardless of the amount of total annual revenue, if more than half of it comes from selling customer data, you are required to be CCPA compliant.
How to Ensure CCPA Compliance Checklist
The main thrust of the CCPA requires companies to keep more detailed records of the data they collect. Companies who fall under the criteria listed above should take the following measures to ensure to ensure CCPA compliance:
Provide data collected from a consumer upon request
Allow consumers to opt out of data collection
This is a simplified version of the requirements of the law. The CCPA has very specific guidelines as to what constitutes personal data. So depending on your company’s services, it is important to discover what kinds of information are covered, so you can seek more detailed information about CCPA compliance.
Additionally, certain businesses like insurance companies may not need to be concerned, since they are already overseen by other California laws. The way these laws interact with one another can make understanding CCPA compliance solutions complicated. So it can be difficult to determine what exactly you need to do to avoid fines or worse.
Importance of CCPA Compliance
For that reason it’s important to take these things into consideration. Especially considering that legislation like this could eventually become federal law. And similar laws could pop up from time to time in other states. So getting ahead with a law like this may help your company’s infrastructure when dealing with things like this in the long term.
Making sure your site is CCPA compliant not only offers a more transparent user experience, it also helps to build trust within your user base. Customers appreciate when a company is open with them about the data they collect. As such, following a CCPA compliance checklist can have multiple desired effects.
Additionally, amendments will likely tweak the law over time, so things like punishments or the types of guidelines may change. If you’re concerned about whether your site is in accordance with the law, Split Reef offers CCPA compliance consulting. Using CCPA compliance tools, our experts can help your company locate any CCPA compliance red flags, and address them if need be.
Split Reef is a modern, results-driven digital organization always ready to support clients in their search for digital supremacy. With Split Reef, your budget isn’t going to hold you back from partnering with us to make your project successful. Our offices are located in Columbus, Ohio and Jacksonville, Florida.