California's new consumer privacy law comes into effect this week

The landmark California Consumer Privacy Act offers Californians several basic rights

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) - the strictest privacy rights bill in the US - came into effect on Wednesday, 1^st January.

The landmark privacy law comes with some powerful privacy protections for residents of California, but is expected to have broad implications for consumers and businesses across the US.

The CCPA offers Californians several basic rights. It will force companies to disclose to consumers what data they collect about them, why they collect it, and who they share it with.

The companies will also be required to provide consumers the straightforward tools to opt out of having their personal data sold to middlemen or third-party data brokers.

Californians should start seeing an opt-out link at the bottom of web pages. If a company sells users data, they must provide a clearly noticeable button saying, "Do Not Sell My Personal Information".

Companies must also provide users with access to data collected within 45 days upon user request, and honour requests by users to have their data deleted.

Moreover, CCPA forbids organisations from offering a higher tier of service to consumers who agree to disclose more personal details.

However, CCPA will only apply to businesses earning at least $25 million in annual revenue or making more than half of their revenue selling user data. Companies collecting personal information on more than 50,000 consumers will also be covered under CCPA.

Companies violating the law or not fixing violations within stipulated times will face fines of up to $7,500 for each violation.

Microsoft announced in November that it would honour CCPA throughout the US - not just California.

Microsoft's chief privacy officer Julie Brill described CCPA as "an important step toward providing people with more robust control over their data in the United States".

However, not all companies are so enthusiastic about it. Many firms and lobby groups have tried to delay the law, while urging Congress to introduce and pass a watered-down federal privacy bill that will cover the entire country and supersede CCPA.

It won't be enforced until 1st July, California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said.

This will give organisations a breathing space to achieve compliance and give state lawmakers more time to clarify the language of the law or to soften some requirements in response to lobbyists.