AB 3286: California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018: monetary thresholds: grants.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) grants to a consumer various rights with respect to personal information, as defined, that is collected by a business, as defined, including the right to request that a business delete personal information about the consumer that the business has collected from the consumer. The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, an initiative measure approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, amended, added to, and reenacted the CCPA. The CCPA establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency with full administrative power, authority, and jurisdiction to implement and enforce the CCPA. The CCPA imposes certain responsibilities on the Attorney General, including adjusting the monetary thresholds of specified code sections in January of every odd-numbered year to reflect any increase in the Consumer Price Index.

This bill would remove that responsibility from the Attorney General and would instead require the agency to determine and apply the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for the monetary thresholds, as prescribed.

The CCPA creates the Consumer Privacy Fund in the State Treasury and makes moneys in the fund available upon appropriation by the Legislature first to offset any costs incurred by the state courts in connection with actions brought to enforce the CCPA, the costs incurred by the Attorney General in carrying out the Attorney Generals duties under the CCPA, and then for the purposes of establishing an investment fund in the State Treasury, with any earnings or interest from the fund to be deposited in the General Fund, and making grants to promote and protect consumer privacy, educate children in the area of online privacy, and fund cooperative programs with international law enforcement organizations to combat fraudulent activities with respect to consumer data breaches, as prescribed. The CCPA annually appropriates from the General Fund of the state to the agency the sum of $10,000,000 adjusted for cost-of-living changes for expenditure to support the operations of the agency pursuant to the CCPA.

This bill would additionally authorize moneys in the fund to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature to offset the costs incurred by the agency in carrying out its duties under the CCPA and would require the agency to begin administering the grant program referred to above when the amount of grant funds available after all other distributions have been made in accordance with the provisions described above exceeds $300,000. The bill would require, in a fiscal year in which the amount of funds available for those grants is less than $300,000, the funds available for grants to remain in the fund and preserved for future year appropriations for the purpose of making the grants until the total funds accrued for that purpose after all other distributions have been made exceeds $300,000.

The CCPA authorizes the agency to, upon the sworn complaint of any person or on its own initiative, investigate possible violations of the CCPA relating to any business, service provider, contractor, or person. The CCPA requires the agency to notify in writing the person who made the complaint of the action, if any, the agency has taken or plans to take on the complaint, together with the reasons for that action or nonaction.

This bill would specify that the written notification shall exclude information that is subject to law enforcement exemptions and privileges, as specified.

This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020.