california passes one of the most comprehensive privacy laws in the us creditjason henry for the new york timesjune 28 2018san francisco california has passed a digital privacy law granting consumers more control over and insight into the spread of their personal information online creating one of the most significant regulations overseeing the datacollection practices of technology companies in the united statesthe bill raced through the state legislature without opposition on thursday and was signed into law by gov jerry brown just hours before a deadline to pull from the november ballot an initiative seeking even tougher oversight over technology companiesthe new law grants consumers the right to know what information companies are collecting about them why they are collecting that data and with whom they are sharing it it gives consumers the right to tell companies to delete their information as well as to not sell or share their data businesses must still give consumers who opt out the same quality of serviceit also makes it more difficult to share or sell data on children younger than 16the legislation which goes into effect in january 2020 makes it easier for consumers to sue companies after a data breach and it gives the states attorney general more authority to fine companies that dont adhere to the new regulationsthe california law is not as expansive as europes general data protection regulation or gdpr a new set of laws restricting how tech companies collect store and use personal databut aleecia m mcdonald an incoming assistant professor at carnegie mellon university who specializes in privacy policy said californias privacy measure was one of the most comprehensive in the united states since most existing laws and there are not many do little to limit what companies can do with consumer informationits a step forward and it should be appreciated as a step forward when its been a long time since there were any steps ms mcdonald saidthe legislation is modeled closely on the ballot initiative which a real estate developer alastair mactaggart spent 3 million and secured more than 600000 signatures to get certified with the ballot proposal hanging over legislators heads the push for an alternative gained grudging supportif the bill had failed to pass before the deadline the proponents of the ballot initiative would have taken their case straight to voters in november they saidthe states technology and business lobbies were opposed to the measure that was passed on thursday but they didnt try to derail it because they thought the ballot initiative was worseeven legislators who voted for the bill complained that they had little choice because a ballot measure would provide less flexibility to make changes in the future and some privacy advocates said the bill did not go as far as the ballot initiative in allowing individuals to sue for not complyingimagecreditjason henry for the new york timesmr mactaggart said he wanted a sensible privacy law whether through a ballot measure or the legislative process he said that the