A robust new California privacy law requiring transparency and disclosure on how insurance agencies and large broker-dealers collect and use personal data and how they delete that information will go into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
"Companies doing business with Californians, even those located outside California, may need to start planning to comply with the new law, even if they are already compliant with other U.S. and European privacy laws," an alert from the law firm of Eversheds Sutherland warns.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) will affect more than half a million U.S. companies, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
As Eversheds Sutherland notes, CCPA arrived on the heels of the expansive consumer protections offered by the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), "and echoes key GDPR concepts such as enhanced transparency and disclosure obligations regarding personal data."
CCPA was signed into law in late June, but companies are still figuring out how the complex law will apply to them.
Covered employers include companies in one of three categories: those with annual gross revenues of more than $25 million; those storing the personal information of at least 50,000 consumers, households or devices; or those earning at least half of their annual revenues from selling consumers' personal information.
This could conceivably include large insurance agencies. It will also apply to all residents in California, in general, so employers should be prepared to apply protections to any employee who lives there, according to retirement industry professionals.
Members of the Insured Retirement Institute "take data privacy issues seriously," Dan Zielinski, spokesman for the annuity trade group, told ThinkAdvisor on Friday. "The new California law is complex and the industry is studying the requirements and implications closely. We expect that the implementation process will contain opportunities for California regulators to make further clarification and refinement and we will be monitoring this effort."
