California Consumer Protection Act and Your Business
While you may be thinking... well I don't live in California so this doesn't apply to me. You are incorrect in that thinking. The CCPA has made significant changes to how large platforms like Google and Facebook can deliver your advertising to customers. So let's jump in...
So what is the CCPA?
The CCPA was enacted a little over a year ago and granted certain privacy protections to consumers in California. This protections included: The right to know what information a company collects about them, and how it is used and shared. The right to delete personal information about them selves. The right to opt-out of the sale of their personal information and a company can not refuse to sell them a product or service if they exercise their CCPA rights.
The CCPA applies to any company that does business in the state of California with any of the following criteria - the organization has an annual gross revenue of more than $25 M, Buys/Sells/Receives personal information of more than 50,000 Californians, or gets more than 50% of their annual revenue from selling California residents personal information.
Seems pretty straightforward right? Well... not so much. The last criterion on that list is a bit murky. If you are a business that sells to a customer in California and uses Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Advertising or Bing Advertising you may be accountable for CCPA compliance.
Facebook, Google & CCPA
In June of 2020, Facebook introduced a new feature that businesses can use to ensure compliance with the CCPA. It is called Limited Use Data. When an organization applies this feature it will direct Facebook to limit how data is processed based on state-specific terms. Facebook did note that when limited use data is enabled, businesses may notice an impact to campaign performance and effectiveness, and retargeting and measurement capabilities will be limited.
Google has a history of giving users transparency and control over their ad experiences and does not sell personal information. In 2018, two years before the CCPA, Google made updates to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe. To comply with the CCPA, Google launched Restricted Data Processing for advertisers and organizations. When you enable restricted data processing certain ad features will no longer be available to you. Key features for advertisers include adding users to re-marketing lists and adding users to similar audience re-marketing lists in Google Ads.
Data and Consumer Privacy Regulations are not going anywhere anytime soon. 2021 is expected to be the year where data privacy laws become more widespread. States that are currently on track to pass these laws include - Nevada, Vermont, Maine, Virginia, New York, Washington, Utah, and Oklahoma. There are several bills on the docket in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, and Connecticut, and Kentucky that are similar to the CCPA.
In Review…
1. The California Consumer Protection Act is applicable to more than just businesses that operate in California.
2. Both Facebook and Google currently have offerings for your business to be compliant with the law, but they will impact ad performance.
3. Privacy and Data laws are here to stay and as marketers we need to understand what the rules are in the geographies we serve.
Do you have more questions about this topic? Email us at mhbreister@gmail.com.
