On October 1st we hosted our Prop 24 “Your Privacy on the Ballot” webinar that was well attended with a lot of interest as evidenced by the number and variety of questions flowing in from attendees. Topics covered included:

  • How Prop 24 is “Version 2” of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA);
  • The new privacy rights that Prop 24 gives us Californians;
  • How Prop 24 specifically safeguards kids’ online privacy;
  • How CPRA compares to Europe’s GDPR privacy law; and
  • What Prop 24 means for privacy rights in California and beyond.

Below is a replay of the webinar as well as a recap of key discussion items.

Replay

Here is the webinar in its entirety:

Key Discussion Items

The Problem

Alastair Mactaggart, the chair of Californians for Consumer Privacy. led off the webinar by setting the stage that we are now in the era of Commercial Surveillance (echoing the theme of Prop 24 supporter Shoshana Zuboff‘s book “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”) where corporations know so much about us and have the power to manipulate both us and society.

He then tied that theme in with the recent release of the NetFlix docu-drama “The Social Dilemma” which this website discussed in a blog post on how Prop 24 can address many of the ills that are documented by The Social Dilemma. Speaking of the Social Dilemma, we should also note that the Yes on Prop 24 Campaign is proud to have as supporters two of the privacy and technology experts — Roger McNamee and Shoshana Zuboff — that were interviewed in this documentary.   

Alastair then ended this part of the discussion talking about the impact of maintaining privacy rights on our Democracy. Interestingly, Shoshana also mention in a tweet how privacy and Democracy are “twin born.”

CCPA

Alastair then transitioned into discussing how the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) came into being, with him and his organization leading the charge. The CCPA is California’s current privacy law and has three main features to it as show in the slide below:

The Need for an Upgrade to the CCPA

Alastair then discussed how the CCPA is facing a relentless attack by businesses to gut it and our corresponding privacy rights. Plus he went into a bit of detail on how technology is rapidly advancing with new ways to invade our privacy and therefore has already outstripped our existing privacy laws, meaning we need a “Version 2” upgrade to the CCPA.

So these factors led to a second initiative that is Prop 24, which is the California Privacy Right Act (or CPRA). It greatly enhances privacy rights here in California while setting setting the floor for California privacy and protecting our privacy against attacks by allowing the legislature to amend with a 50%+1 vote (but only if the proposed law furthers privacy rights of Californians).

Major Features of Prop 24

Alastair then covered the three main features of Prop 24, which are

Protecting our personal information (e.g. introduction of the concept of sensititive personal information which consumers can limit its use by businesses — this includes limiting use of precise geolocation)

Safeguarding our children’s privacy

Creation of the California Privacy Protection Agency to better regulate businesses that collect, use, sell and share our personal information.

Alastair then covered the top 20 benefits of Prop 24 compared to existing California privacy law, which we covered in this blog post.

Concluding Thoughts

Alastair then provided concluding thoughts. He first discussed how California has set the standard for consumer protection through the years, and how Prop 24 was a continuation of that leadership position that California has always taken.

And before taking questions Alastair then summarized who is supporting Prop 24 and asked for your support to Vote Yes on Privacy and Vote Yes on Prop 24.

Alastair took a number of question in the end which you can review on the replay.

Hopefully by listening to this webinar you will get a strong sense for how Prop 24 strengthens privacy rights for us Californians, is a needed upgrade to current California law, gets us on par with the rights that European enjoys, and is part of a long tradition of California leading the United States in consumer protection. As Alastair said in the webinar, we urge you to Vote Yes on Privacy and Vote Yes on Prop 24!