In California, U.S. retailers have to comply with the new privacy law (the C.C.P.A. or California Consumer Privacy Act) effective from January 1st, 2020. Similar to European laws, this helps customers protect personal information. Retailers and associated businesses have to provide customers with a copy of all personal information they hold and abide by requests to delete or to not sell to third-parties.
The law required that retailers provide customer warnings within their systems, so Walmart added “Do Not Sell My Info” links for their stores and web pages. The Home Depot carried out staff training combined with customer-facing initiatives like signs on shelves and QR codes for customer to read information via mobile devices. The D.I.Y. giant also now provides online access to data for all customers in the U.S.A. The grocery retailer Target provided a “Do Not Sell” button for all online U.S. shoppers. Although many retailers already allow customers to ‘opt out’ of personal information sharing for marketing purposes, a Walmart spokesperson told Reuters “There are a number of ambiguities in the law. An example is the language used for loyalty programs and if retail companies can continue to offer these going forward”.
This new law affects businesses outside retail, including social media platforms, advertisers and app developers. Facebook and Google have campaigned heavily to minimize the effects of the law via a trade group called Internet Association. In the first 9 months of 2019, Facebook spent US$12.3 million on tech industry lobbying, almost 25% more than in the same period for 2018.