AFSA Touts Consumer Privacy Rights
Last week, AFSA’s State Government Affairs team sent a joint comment letter to the California Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Senate Bill 1076 and consumer privacy rights in the state.
In the letter, AFSA expresses support for SB 1076 to broaden the scope of information provided by registered data brokers and mandate the Consumer Privacy Protection Agency, to create a system allowing consumers or their designated representatives to submit a single request for deletion to all registered data brokers. Existing legislation lacks sufficient safeguards to shield consumers from potential abuse of the deletion process, undue fees, or charges, and fails to offer a method for consumers to opt back into particular services.
AFSA also explains that if SB 1076 is enacted, it will safeguard Californians without restricting their rights to privacy as consumers. In the absence of adequate consumer safeguards, an individual acting maliciously as an “authorized agent” could deceitfully submit a deletion request on behalf of a consumer. SB 1076 will additionally prevent situations where consumers are unintentionally opted out without having initiated a deletion request.
Moreover, SB 1076 will protect Californians against fraudulent individuals and scammers who might attempt to levy charges for a government service that should be free. While the deletion process itself does not entail charges for consumers, there are no restrictions on third-party services or authorized agents to impose fees on consumers for facilitating deletions through the process.
This letter, along with SGA’s other recent letters, can be found on the direct advocacy section of AFSA’s website.
April 25th, 2024
