California Consumers Express Concerns About the California Consumer Privacy Act

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), in partnership with other key industry leaders, are calling on California policymakers to revise the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). We believe these steps are necessary to address certain provisions that threaten the free flow of information critical to the infrastructure of our nation’s data-driven economy. While we agree with the underlying goals of the CCPA – including improving transparency, control and accountability around data practices – ANA has serious concerns about a number of the key provisions of the law. Importantly, a new survey also shows that many California consumers share these concerns.

The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), the advertising industry’s strong self-regulation program, recently commissioned a survey of 1,039 California adults that offers compelling evidence that California consumers strongly support ANA’s position on many CCPA provisions.

Survey findings include:

• Consumers prefer a DAA-style opt-out approach (i.e., strong controls over sharing of data) over the broad access requirements of the CCPA. 82.5% of surveyed consumers think it is more important for users to be able to exercise strong controls over how their information is shared with other companies, rather than for users to see all the information about them a business has collected.
• Consumers strongly support the industry's position that pseudonymized data should be treated differently than personal information. 54.9% of surveyed consumers strongly oppose a requirement for businesses to connect the pseudonymous information they have on users to their actual name or identities.
• Consumers want businesses to compile and share their information in broad (i.e., categories of interests) and not specific (i.e., detailed activities) form. 87.7% of surveyed consumers prefer that businesses compile generic information, rather than detailed information on consumers.

These findings show that the CCPA does not offer California consumers the privacy protection they want and need. These findings also underscore ANA’s position that the CCPA ultimately does not adequately prioritize the privacy interests of California consumers. These concerns are real and need to be addressed.

To further reinforce ANA’s perspective on the potential adverse consequences of the CCPA, ANA Senior Vice President of Government Relations Chris Oswald is testifying today before California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in Sacramento, California. In his testimony, Chris will highlight a number of ANA’s specific concerns with the CCPA, including the need to redefine the Act’s overly broad definition of “personal information,” not preclude loyalty programs, and better distinguish pseudonymized data from personalized data.

Also, Oswald forcefully emphasizes that “As I noted during the January 14th hearing in San Diego, as we look closely at the CCPA we are concerned that some aspects of the law will have unintended adverse consequences for consumers, businesses, and advertisers that will inadvertently undermine rather than enhance consumer privacy.”

ANA hopes this information will assist Attorney General Becerra to clarify a number of the CCPA’s serious provisions to avoid defects as he moves forward with implementing regulations. Consumers and industry groups alike recognize that the CCPA warrants a careful overhaul. As a result, ANA will continue to amplify these concerns and fight for meaningful consumer privacy protections.