{"id":330,"date":"2024-09-19T09:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T07:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.usercentrics.com\/?post_type=knowledge&p=12018"},"modified":"2025-06-26T12:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:51:16","slug":"california-consumer-privacy-act","status":"publish","type":"knowledge","link":"https:\/\/usercentrics-poc.psapp.dev\/us\/knowledge-hub\/california-consumer-privacy-act\/","title":{"rendered":"California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) \u2013 an overview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States does not yet have a single federal data protection law. To date, an increasing number of states have passed their own laws and\/or updated existing ones, and bills have been introduced, are in progress, or have failed in many others.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of other long standing privacy laws that target specific types of information or human demographics in the US, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for health and the <\/span>Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)<\/span><\/a> for children’s safety. This does not make it easy to keep track of all or achieve compliance for all relevant regulations that address personal data.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first and most influential state-level consumer privacy law passed in the United States is the <\/span>California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)<\/span><\/a>. It takes some influence from the European Union’s <\/span>General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)<\/span><\/a> and has, in turn, influenced privacy bills drafted by other states, including the <\/span>Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The <\/span>California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)<\/span><\/a> is a US state-level consumer privacy law that was passed in 2018 and came into effect on January 1, 2020. It applies exclusively to residents of California, known as \u201dconsumers\u201d under the law, and regulates the protection of their personal information. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting, however, that California is the most populous US state, with a population of over 39 million people, as well as having the world\u2019s fifth largest economy, and a number of the world\u2019s largest and most influential tech companies are headquartered there. So the state has an outsized influence on many fronts.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A consumer under the law is a natural person who is a resident of California, however identified, including by means of a unique identifier. A \u201cresident\u201d means:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n