A new law passed by California voters in the November election will set an unmatched standard for digital privacy in the US, making it difficult for companies like Facebook and Google to track the data of its users.
Proposition 24 intends to improve and build upon the rules of the California Consumer Privacy Act, the 2019 law that gave Californians more control over how companies collect and sell their information.
New California law will it harder for Facebook and Google to track users and gather data
The new law will help to strengthen existing privacy measures in California, allowing users to stop tech giants from selling or sharing their personal information like precise geolocation, race, ethnicity, and health information.
The law will also set stricter limitations on how websites track their user’s data to sell that information to advertising partners. Facebook and Google both gather personal data collected by third-party websites to help strengthen their targeted advertising, which makes up the majority of their revenue.
“We are at the beginning of a journey that will profoundly shape the fabric of our society by redefining who is in control of our most personal information and putting consumers back in charge of their own data,” said Alastair Mactaggart, chair of Californians for Consumer Privacy and a Proposition 24 sponsor, in a press release. “I’m looking forward to the work ahead and the next steps in implementing this law, including setting up a commission that is dedicated to protecting consumers online.”
The law comes as online-ad giants are facing several new threats. Apple has just released an iPhone software update that lets users opt-out of ad trackers, which Facebook has protested. Several web browsers including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are also rolling out similar tools to let users opt-out of tracking, which could negatively impact advertisers’ revenue.
Prop 24 will become enforceable in 2023. Ahead of that, California regulators are expected to provide more details about how the law will be enforced. The upcoming details will tell us exactly how proposition 24 will shape the rules of major tech companies like Facebook and Google.
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