Action is currently underway to amend the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to provide employers an additional year to comply with the CCPA with respect to employee data of California-based employees.
The California Senate Judiciary Committee has passed AB-25, an amendment to the CCPA that would delay most of the compliance obligations for employee data until January 1, 2021. Specifically, the amendment provides that employees are not “consumers” for most purposes of the statute until January 1, 2021.
If the legislature passes the bill, the CCPA will still apply to employers with California-based employees in the following ways, effective January 1, 2020:
- Employees will be able to sue employers for a data breach involving their unencrypted data
- Employers must provide a notice to employees describing the categories of employee information collected, used and disclosed by the employer.
While there have been many predictions that the CCPA would be amended to remove employee data from the requirements of the statute altogether, if the California state legislature approves the bill amending the CCPA, the effect will be to simply delay the compliance obligations for employers for a year.
For now the bill is with the Senate Appropriations Committee for hearing and another round of voting. Assuming Appropriations votes to pass the bill, it will go to the Floor for a vote. The Appropriations Committee has until August 30th to vote on bills.
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