SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Today the Yes on Prop 24 campaign announced that Consumer Reports endorsed California Proposition 24, The California Privacy Rights Act. The measure, which is currently on the November 3rd ballot, would amend the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the first-of-its-kind privacy law that gives Californians the right to access, delete, and stop the sale of their information.
Consumer Reports has played a leading role in ensuring that the CCPA works for consumers. CR has documented companies’ efforts to avoid complying with the CCPA since it went into effect in January 2020, and pointed out the difficulties that consumers have faced in exercising their new privacy rights. CR also fought on behalf of consumers for numerous pieces of legislation to strengthen the CCPA, and defended the CCPA from being weakened by a flurry of industry-supported bills in the 2019 legislative session. While the ballot measure is not perfect, it would address significant loopholes that companies have exploited to deny consumers’ opt-out requests—loopholes that the legislature, despite the efforts of key champions in Sacramento, has not been able to address.
“Some of the biggest tech companies have refused to honor Californians’ requests to stop the disclosure of their information for behavioral advertising, and they’re lobbying for exemptions for these practices in other states,” said Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst at Consumer Reports. “California consumers should use their power as citizens to vote for Proposition 24 to show that they will stand up for themselves if companies and legislators won’t.”
Justin Brookman, director of technology policy at Consumer Reports, said, “Despite the passage of the CCPA, few companies have meaningfully curbed their data-sharing practices, even when a consumer asks them to stop. Proposition 24 would close up some of the worst loopholes in the CCPA, to help make the new law more workable for consumers.”
About Prop 24 / The California Privacy Rights Act
Proposition 24 would:
- Protect your most personal information, by allowing you to prevent businesses from using or sharing sensitive information about your health, finances, race, ethnicity, and precise location;
- Safeguard young people, TRIPLING FINES for violations involving children’s information;
- Put new limits on companies’ collection and use of our personal information;
- Establish an enforcement arm—the California Privacy Protection Agency—to defend these rights and hold companies accountable, and extend enforcement including IMPOSING PENALTIES FOR NEGLIGENCE resulting in theft of consumers’ emails and passwords;
- MAKE IT MUCH HARDER TO WEAKEN PRIVACY in California in the future, by preventing special interests and politicians from undermining Californians’ privacy rights, while allowing the Legislature to amend the law to further the primary goal of strengthening consumer privacy to better protect you and your children, such as opt-in for use of data, further protections for uniquely vulnerable minors, and greater power for individuals to hold violators accountable.
Yes on 24 Supporters
The Yes on Prop 24 campaign is proud to have the endorsement of former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Los Angeles Times editorial board, Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee editorial board, Congressman Ro Khanna, California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, California State Controller Betty Yee, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Common Sense Media, Consumer Watchdog, AFSCME California, the NAACP of California, California Professional Firefighters, California State Building and Construction Trades Council, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21 (Bay Area), UA Local 38 Plumbers and Pipefitters, California State Senators Ben Allen, Bill Dodd, Lena Gonzalez, Connie Leyva, Bill Monning, Nancy Skinner, Robert Hertzberg, Scott Wiener, Bob Wieckowski and Jim Beall, California State Assemblymembers Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and David Chiu, John Burton, Former Chair of the California Democratic Party, Alex Rooker and Daraka Larimore Hall, Vice Chairs of the California Democratic Party, Dan Weitzman, Controller of the California Democratic Party, Jenny Bach, Secretary of the California Democratic Party, Dr. Lisa Strohman, JD, PhD, and more.
About Californians for Consumer Privacy
Californians for Consumer Privacy is the same group that authored the first-in-the-nation California Consumer Privacy Act, which was passed unanimously by the California State Legislature and signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown. Now the group is backing Prop 24, the California Privacy Rights Act on the 2020 ballot, to expand and enshrine privacy rights for all Californians.
