Association of National Advertisers Seeks Halt to Enforcement of CCPA Until January 2, 2021, and Additional Regulatory Clarifications
Association of National Advertisers Seeks Halt to Enforcement of CCPA Until January 2, 2021, and Additional Regulatory Clarifications
Group Seeks Guidance to Promote Industry Compliance, Reduce Confusion for Consumers and Businesses
Washington, D.C, March 27, 2020 – The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) today asked the California Attorney General to forebear enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) until January 2, 2021 as businesses and the nation focus resources on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The group also requests additional clarification on the latest draft proposed regulations to help businesses comply and to reduce confusion for consumers and businesses.
“Changing the regulations so close to the law’s enforcement date will make it difficult if not impossible for businesses to comply with the final rules by July 1, 2020,” said Dan Jaffe, Group Executive Vice President of government relations for the ANA. “It’s appropriate to cease enforcement until next year because of the very limited time for companies to come into compliance and the virtually unprecedented disruption caused by the current global COVID-19 pandemic. During these extraordinarily turbulent times, the business community has to be able to focus on addressing the global health and economic challenges facing all of us.”
On March 20, 2020, in the midst of the spreading COVID-19 pandemic, ANA joined sixty-five other trade associations, organizations, and companies that sent a letter to the Attorney General urging a delay in the effective date of the rules as well as enforcement until January 2, 2021. This limited deferral will give businesses the time they need to understand and effectively implement the final rules and will help lessen the blow to businesses caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
“While we fully support the goal of creating strong and meaningful privacy protections for Californians, certain provisions in the draft rules could hinder consumer privacy and choice rather than advance it,” said Jaffe. “We therefore urge the Attorney General to update the draft rules to better protect California consumers and provide more clarity for businesses. Simply put, more clarity around the law’s requirements is good for consumers and the businesses that serve them.”
ANA’s comments further request that the proposed regulations be amended to clarify that Californians may continue to receive the benefits of the loyalty and rewards programs they enjoy, value, and expect.
The comments also ask for updates to the draft rules to clarify that internally generated inferences and derived data need not be provided in response to a consumer request to access specific pieces of personal information, because such data is not collected. This approach reflects a logical reading of the law and aligns with consumer expectations as to the types of data that could be “collected” from and sold about them. This interpretation also protects the intellectual property and trade secrets of businesses in their internal inferences and provides clear guidance that allows them to practically provide readily understandable information about consumers.
In addition, instead of instituting a blanket requirement for businesses to honor browser signals and privacy controls (a proposal that goes beyond the law’s intent and scope), ANA asks the Attorney General to clarify that businesses may honor global privacy controls or offer consumers another, equally effective method of opting out of personal information sale. This clarification would avoid the constitutional concerns inherent in the requirement and would better enable businesses to abide by consumers’ expressed choices. It would also prevent intermediaries from setting default signals that do not align with consumer preferences.
“Consumers and businesses need more clarity about the new CCPA regulations, and we all need more time to understand them and prepare to implement them. Hopefully, the Attorney General will respond favorably to our request,” said Jaffe.
ABOUT THE ANA
The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Dan Jaffe, ANA Group EVP Government Relations
Office: 202.296.2359
Mobile: 646.369.4886