California’s New Data Privacy Law

One of the enduring memories of the Obamacare rollout in 2013 was the extreme tech issues with its website, Healthcare.gov. California officials hope a similar fate doesn’t derail its ambitious new data privacy law, set to go into effect at the beginning of next year. The California Consumer Privacy Act is somewhat modeled on the EU’s much-ballyhooed GDPR law, which aimed to give consumers the right to control how their data is used by private companies.

The California law also aims to give citizens the ability to request data be deleted and prevent its sale. But with 40 million residents in the state, California’s attorney general — who is tasked with enforcing the law — is hoping his office doesn’t strain too much under the pressure, telling CNBC he is “worried” he doesn’t have enough staff to deal effectively with the rollout. If similar snafus akin to the Affordable Care Act happen here, it will be interesting to see how that affects the law’s popularity and usage.