(Last Updated On: March 24, 2022)

SCARS™ Special Report: The New Horror Show – The California Consumer Privacy Act

Are You Aware That The World Just Changed?

Just like the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that made it possible to create social media, there are always unintended consequences.

The new California law – the CCPA – is full of potential unintended consequences – one of them is it actually makes it easier for scammers to access your data!

Under the new CCPA consumers have the right to request their data be deleted, as well as the right to know what data is being collected, the purpose of the collection and with whom it is shared.

Learn more about the new law here :: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Act

Since someone might impersonate a consumer in order to obtain their personal information for use in fraud schemes, the CCPA requires businesses to “promptly take steps to determine whether the request is a verifiable request” — but it provides little guidance on what steps are necessary and reasonable.

Moreover, it requires them to respond to requests within 45 days.

Under that pressure, businesses with few compliance resources might fall prey to fraud in their rush to respond.

For example, if a scammer impersonates a Californian consumer they can request a copy of all data about that consumer, without the real consumer ever knowing. Does that sound like a good situation?

And this new law takes effect on January 1, 2020 – in two months!

Now consider a business like SCARS!

We offer support groups, scammer reporting, comments, and much more – all contain consumer data that you have voluntarily provided. We do not believe that we have to comply because we are a real nonprofit, BUT if we did it would be impossible to track, compile, and deliver on-request all data about a specific individual consumer.

The result is that if this new law does apply to us, we will have to shut down all processes that collect consumer information, or simply ban all Californians.

• That means we would have to stop and erase all scammer reports.
• Stop all support groups.
• Shut down all pages that allow comments – which is all of them.

Now, in the case of Facebook – we can argue that this is Facebook’s responsibility, but not on our own websites.

Thus Unforeseen Consequences!

As a result, we are being told that huge numbers of websites will be phasing out comments or other consumer interaction because of the difficulty and cost of complying with the new Califonia law.

We keep saying that elections have consequences. Now you are seeing one example of this.

SCARS is a firm believer in protecting the rights of all victims. However, this new law makes every online user a victim.

We will keep you informed about how this progresses and what actions SCARS will be taking. This is not like the European GDPR, this is significantly more difficult and potentially catastrophically costly.

 

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SCARS™ Team
A SCARS Division
Miami Florida U.S.A.

 

 

TAGS: SCARS, Important Article, Information About Scams, Anti-Scam, SCARS™ Special Report, California Consumer Privacy Act, CCPA, New Privacy Law, California Consumer Privacy Rights

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