This piece originally appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune.
California passed the nation’s toughest data privacy and digital consumer rights law in 2020, but details of how it will be applied and enforced are still being hammered out, especially in regard to AI-powered automated decision making technology. It’s crucial that the decision makers overseeing this effort involve stakeholders in the tech industry — the obvious experts on all things AI — to make sure reasonable regulations are put in place that will protect Californians without stifling technological innovation.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 is a data privacy law that sets standards for data collection, details the consequences for businesses that fail to protect data and explains the rights California consumers can exercise over their own personal data.
The California Consumer Privacy Act was amended in 2020 by state Proposition 24, which gave consumers more control over their personal data and also established the California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the agency. One of the major issues facing the California Privacy Protection Agency now is how to deal with the impacts of artificial intelligence technologies, as the power of AI creates new challenges in keeping personal data safe and private.
