US privacy law compliance for your site, app and business
State laws are placing new requirements on businesses, and, as a result, new legal and technical burdens as well. Compliance can be complicated. Our solutions take the guesswork out of compliance by doing the heavy technical and legal lifting so that you can focus on growing your business.
In general, US state privacy laws like the CPRA (CCPA amendment) and VCDPA may apply to you if you target users based in those states and simultaneously meet any of the requirements outlined below.
CPRA
VCDPA
CPA
CTDPA
UCPA
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) builds on the CCPA’s existing provisions, enriches consumer rights, and adds new requirements for companies that process personal data from California residents.
It applies to legal entities doing business in California for profit, that process consumers' personal information and that meet any one or more of the following requirements:
annual gross revenues in excess of $25M;
annually buys, sells, or shares the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households; or
derives 50% or more of its annual revenues from selling, or sharing* consumers' personal information.
* Can include third-party integrations on your website.
The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) was signed into law in March 2021, and Virginia became the second state in the United States to enact a comprehensive data privacy law after California. The VCDPA goes into effect on January 1, 2023.
It applies to persons that conduct business in Virginia or provide products or services that are targeted to residents of Virginia and that:
during a calendar year, control or process personal data of at least 100,000 consumers; or
control or process personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derive over 50 percent of gross revenue from the sale of personal data.
The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) is designed to protect the privacy rights of Colorado residents by regulating how businesses collect, process, and store personal data.
It applies to controllers that conduct business in Colorado or intentionally target Colorado residents with commercial products or services, and:
control or process the personal data of 100,000 consumers or more during a calendar year; or
derive revenue from the sale of personal data and process or control the personal data of 25,000 consumers or more.
The Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) requires you to provide consumers with clear and meaningful privacy notices that include information on personal data processing, purposes, consumer rights, and third-party sharing, among other requirements.
It applies to persons that conduct business in Connecticut or produce products or services that are targeted to Connecticut’s residents and that during the preceding calendar year:
Controlled or processed personal data of at least 100,000 consumers (excluding personal data controlled or processed to exclusively complete a payment transaction); or
Controlled or processed personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derived more than 25% of their gross revenue from the sale of personal data.
The Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA) is a new consumer privacy law in Utah that will go into effect on December 31, 2023. The UCPA takes a business-friendly approach to consumer privacy. The UCPA is intended to provide a workable standard for businesses while also protecting Utah consumers’ guaranteed rights.
It applies to any organization that:
Conducts business in Utah; or
Produces a product or service that is targeted to consumers who are Utah residents;
Has annual revenue of $25,000,000 or more; and
Satisfies one or more of the following thresholds:
During a calendar year, controls, or processes personal data of 100,000 or more consumers; or
Derives over 50% of the entity’s gross revenue from the sale of personal data and controls or processes personal data of 25,000 or more consumers.
CPRA
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) builds on the CCPA’s existing provisions, enriches consumer rights, and adds new requirements for companies that process personal data from California residents.
It applies to legal entities doing business in California for profit, that process consumers' personal information and that meet any one or more of the following requirements:
annual gross revenues in excess of $25M;
annually buys, sells, or shares the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households; or
derives 50% or more of its annual revenues from selling, or sharing* consumers' personal information.
* Can include third-party integrations on your website.
The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) was signed into law in March 2021, and Virginia became the second state in the United States to enact a comprehensive data privacy law after California. The VCDPA goes into effect on January 1, 2023.
It applies to persons that conduct business in Virginia or provide products or services that are targeted to residents of Virginia and that:
during a calendar year, control or process personal data of at least 100,000 consumers; or
control or process personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derive over 50 percent of gross revenue from the sale of personal data.
CPA
The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) is designed to protect the privacy rights of Colorado residents by regulating how businesses collect, process, and store personal data.
It applies to controllers that conduct business in Colorado or intentionally target Colorado residents with commercial products or services, and:
control or process the personal data of 100,000 consumers or more during a calendar year; or
derive revenue from the sale of personal data and process or control the personal data of 25,000 consumers or more.
CTDPA
The Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) requires you to provide consumers with clear and meaningful privacy notices that include information on personal data processing, purposes, consumer rights, and third-party sharing, among other requirements.
It applies to persons that conduct business in Connecticut or produce products or services that are targeted to Connecticut’s residents and that during the preceding calendar year:
Controlled or processed personal data of at least 100,000 consumers (excluding personal data controlled or processed to exclusively complete a payment transaction); or
Controlled or processed personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derived more than 25% of their gross revenue from the sale of personal data.
UCPA
The Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA) is a new consumer privacy law in Utah that will go into effect on December 31, 2023. The UCPA takes a business-friendly approach to consumer privacy. The UCPA is intended to provide a workable standard for businesses while also protecting Utah consumers’ guaranteed rights.
It applies to any organization that:
Conducts business in Utah; or
Produces a product or service that is targeted to consumers who are Utah residents;
Has annual revenue of $25,000,000 or more; and
Satisfies one or more of the following thresholds:
During a calendar year, controls, or processes personal data of 100,000 or more consumers; or
Derives over 50% of the entity’s gross revenue from the sale of personal data and controls or processes personal data of 25,000 or more consumers.
See it in action
Timeline US state laws
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) becomes effective, with a grace period of 6 months.
CCPA’s compliance is now actively monitored and enforced by the Office of the Attorney General, issuing non-compliance notices and fines if the violations persist after the 30-day cure period.
CPRA starts its look-back period of 12 months. Businesses must now take into consideration the personal information collected and processed over a 12-month period preceding a consumer’s request.
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) amends the CCPA and becomes effective. The 30-day cure period no longer applies.
To comply with the CPRA, you may need to take the following steps:
It is important to note that the steps you need to take to comply will depend on the nature of your business and the type of personal information you collect and process. See if your business qualifies with this 1-min quiz
The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) becomes effective and is enforced.
To comply with the VCDPA, you may need to take the following steps:
It is important to note that the specific steps you need to take to comply will depend on the nature of your business, the type of personal information you collect and process, and other factors.
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) is enforced.
The CPRA is now actively monitored and enforced by the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), issuing fines or penalties for non-compliance.
Please be informed that following the decision of the Sacramento County Superior Court, the enforcement of the final regulations issued by the California Privacy Protection Agency has been delayed to March 29, 2024. The decision, however, does not affect the CPRA statutory provisions, which are enforced as of July 1, 2023.
The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) goes into effect.
To comply with the CPA, you may need to take the following steps:
The Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) goes into effect.
To comply with the CTDPA, you may need to take the following steps:
For further information on how to comply with the above, see here.
The Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA) goes into effect.
To comply with the UCPA, you may need to take the following steps:
For further information on how to comply with the above, see here.
The Colorado Privacy Act’s requirement to honor consumers’ opt-out requests made through a universal opt-out mechanism is now effective.
What's required to comply with laws in the US?
As regulations differ slightly from state to state, keeping up with every scenario can be a tiresome job. iubenda’s smart solutions apply the most robust standards to help you comply with minimum effort. Simply select US State Laws in your generator to comply with the main regulations across the US.
Detailed disclosures via Privacy Policy
US Requirement
Businesses must include specific disclosures in their privacy policies. These disclosures include descriptions of consumer rights, processing partners, purposes, sources and more. This information must be complete, up-to-date and easily accessible throughout your website/app.
Policies are invalid if they're missing the right information
In order to be compliant, your policy must at the very least contain:
Include the categories of personal information that your business has sold or shared with third parties in the last 12 months, a list of relevant third parties, and your business purpose. You also need to disclose if you have not sold or shared users’ personal information within the last 12 months.
Add a statement regarding whether or not your business knowingly sells or shares the personal information of users under the age of 16.
Include the categories of personal information that your business has disclosed (for business purposes) to third parties in the last 12 months, a list of relevant third parties, and your business’s purpose. You shall also disclose if you have not disclosed consumers’ personal information in the preceding 12 months.
State whether or not your business uses or discloses sensitive personal information for purposes other than those specified in the act.
Provide any links to online request forms or portals so your users can make requests regarding their personal information being collected, disclosed, or sold.
Include the categories of personal data processed by your organization.
Include your organization’s purpose for processing personal data.
Inform your users of how they may exercise their rights (see below), including how they can appeal a decision on their requests. You must provide one or more methods for users to submit a request.
Include the categories of personal data that your organization shares with third parties, if any.
Include the categories of third parties, if any, with whom your organization shares personal data.
Specifically, the CPA requires you to provide a privacy notice that includes the following information:
Categories of personal data collected or processed.
Purposes for which the categories of personal data are processed.
How and where consumers can exercise their rights, including the contact information and how to appeal a controller’s action with regard to a consumer’s request.
Categories of personal data that are shared with third parties, if any;
Categories of third parties with whom the personal data are shared, if any.
Connecticut’s new privacy law requires that you provide consumers with a clear and meaningful privacy notice that is reasonably accessible. Here’s a checklist of what needs to be included in your privacy policy to comply with the new law:
Categories of Personal Data: Your privacy policy must include a list of the categories of personal data that you process.
Purposes for Processing: Your privacy policy must clearly state the purposes for processing personal data. This includes any reason why you collect and use personal data, such as to fulfill a contract or provide a service.
Consumer Rights: Your privacy policy must explain how consumers can exercise their rights under the law. This includes how a consumer can access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of their personal data. You must also include information on how a consumer can appeal a decision related to their request.
Third-Party Sharing: If you share personal data with third parties, your privacy policy must specify the categories of personal data that you share.
Third-Party Categories: Your privacy policy must also specify the categories of third parties with which you share personal data.
Contact Information: Your privacy policy must provide an active electronic mail address or other online mechanism that consumers can use to contact you with questions or concerns about their personal data.
Sale or Targeted Advertising: If you process personal data for the purposes of sale or targeted advertising, your privacy policy must clearly and conspicuously disclose this fact. You must also provide information on how consumers can exercise their right to opt out of such processing.
If you’re subject to the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA), you must provide a privacy policy that is reasonably accessible and clear to consumers. Your privacy policy should include the following:
Categories of Personal Data Processed: Identify the types of personal data that your organization collects and processes, such as names, email addresses, and payment information.
Purposes for Processing Personal Data: Describe the reasons why your organization collects and processes personal data, such as to fulfill orders, provide customer support, or improve products or services.
Consumer Rights: Explain how consumers can exercise their rights, such as the right to access and delete their personal data. Note that the UCPA does not grant consumers the right to request the correction of inaccurate personal data.
Sharing of Personal Data: Disclose the categories of personal data that your organization shares with third parties, if any. For example, you may share payment information with a payment processor or mailing addresses with a shipping provider.
Third Parties: Identify the categories of third parties with whom your organization shares personal data, if any. This could include vendors, service providers, or marketing partners.
Customizable from 2000+ clauses, available in 14 languages and automatically updated if the law changes, our generator allows you to create a legal document in minutes and seamlessly integrate it with your website or app.
The CPRA (CCPA amendment) requires you to display a notice at or before the point of collection which informs consumers of which categories of personal information will be collected and the purposes for the collection. Consumers must also be allowed to opt-out of this processing. As a business you are therefore responsible for informing consumers of this option and providing the actual means for opt-out.
In particular, you must:
Detect whether or not a consumer is California-based and whether or not they’ve visited your website before
Instruct relevant third-parties to cease processing the consumer's information when an opt-out request is received.
Serve them a notice at first site visit containing the necessary disclosures
Please be informed that under the VCDPA, there are no indications that opt-out links enabling users to opt-out of the processing of personal data for certain purposes are required.
The provisions of the VCDPA, in fact, treat users’ opt-out rights in the same manner as any other users’ rights granted under the Act.
Your business needs to comply with users’ requests as follows:
You need to comply with the request within 45 days. The response period may be extended one time by 45 additional days when reasonably necessary, as long as you inform your user of any extension within the initial 45-day response period, together with the reason for the extension;
If you decline to take action regarding your users’ request, inform the user of such rejection within 45 days, indicating the relevant justification and instructions on how to appeal the decision;
If you are unable to authenticate a request using commercially reasonable efforts, you are not required to comply with the request, and you may ask for additional information, which is reasonably necessary to authenticate the user and its request.
Please be informed that under the CPA, there are no indications that opt-out links enabling consumers to opt-out of the processing of personal data for certain purposes are required. However, if you are processing personal data for targeted advertising or sale, you are required to provide a clear and conspicuous method for consumers to exercise their right to opt out.
This method must be clearly and conspicuously described in the privacy notice and must be readily accessible outside the privacy notice.
You must also allow consumers to opt out of the processing of their personal data for targeted advertising or sale through an opt-out preference signal sent via a platform, technology, or mechanism, with the consumer’s consent. This mechanism must:
not unfairly disadvantage other controllers,
require an affirmative and unambiguous choice from the consumer,
be easy to use,
be as consistent as possible with other similar mechanisms required by federal or state laws or regulations, and
enable the controller to determine whether the consumer is a resident of Connecticut and has made a legitimate opt-out request.
Under the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA), consumers have the right to opt out of the processing of their personal data for targeted advertising purposes or the sale of their personal data to third parties. However, the Act does not provide specific guidelines on how you should enable consumers to exercise this right.
To comply with the UCPA, you must:
provide consumers with a means to submit opt-out requests; and
specify the right they intend to exercise.
It’s important to note that, under UCPA, opt-out links come into consideration only in relation to consumers’ right to opt out of the processing of sensitive data.
Solution
Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution for CPRA and VCDPA
Display a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" (DNSMPI) link in the notice and elsewhere on your site/app thereby supporting opt-out from sale
Automatically detect and apply the correct standards (including multiple standards) based on location. Our solution allows you to apply both CPRA (CCPA amendment) and GDPR standards to the same users when legally required
Easily register and automatically pass user preferences (like opt-out) to ad vendors who support the IAB CCPA (CPRA) Compliance Framework (like Google and AdRoll)
iubenda’s Cookie Solution supports Opt-out Preference
Signals like the GPC
and GPP
as required under the CPRA
As mentioned above, similary to the CPRA (CCPA amendment), most of these state laws grant users the right to opt out. In cases where the processing is somewhat manual (i.e not related to onsite scripts such as in the case of Direct email marketing) businesses may need to manually implement the opt-out request.
Furthermore, laws like the CPRA mandates that users may not be contacted for a minimum of 12 months after the request. For this reason it's prudent to keep records of opt out details such as the particular user, the date, and sub-contractors to be notified in the case of requests.
Solution
Consent Database
Our Consent Database hooks onto your web-forms to let you automatically pass consumer preference details like opt-out via API to a centrally managed visual dashboard. You can record all relevant details including date and time of opt-out, privacy policy version available to the user at the time of opt-out, User-Id, email and even IP address to aid in request verification.
Civil penalty of $2,500 per violation or; $7,500 per violation if it is intentional or involves the personal information of a child.
Civil penalty of up to $7,500 for each violation.
While these fines might not seem like a lot when compared to other privacy laws, do consider that these fines apply per individual violation and per consumer. For a business with even just a few customers, these fines can add up to a hefty sum.
Overall, what are the main requirements for websites and app owners?
Sharing and profiling
If you have users from the US, then you may need to comply with laws like the CPRA & VCDPA when it comes to profiling or sharing user information. This means that you must inform users that you’re processing their data this way and give them the ability to stop sharing (opt out).
Consent Records
Some regions like Europe and Brazil require you to keep consent proofs (also known as records of consent). In many cases, without these records, the consents you collect may be considered invalid — placing you in violation of the law.
Cross-region requirements
If you have users from various regions (e.g Europe and the US) then you may need to simultaneously comply with laws from multiple regions like California’s CPRA or Europe’s GDPR. This means having region-specific disclosures available in your privacy documents and more.
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The CPRA becomes law on January 1, 2023, and will be enforced as of July 1, 2023.
At iubenda, we always keep an eye on the latest updates and ensure that all of our documents and products are adjusted in time to help you stay compliant.
If you already have CCPA procedures in place, it might be a good idea for you to start reviewing your processes and taking note of a few things:
The United States gains another data privacy regulation through Virginia’s Data Protection Act (VCDPA).
The VCDPA takes effect on January 1, 2023.
If your organization falls under the scope of the VCDPA, you should begin looking into compliance solutions that are well-trusted and drafted by lawyers.
So, if you haven’t got one already, start to set up all that you need today, and we’ll inform you when the clauses are available!
Or join us at our next webinar to get an overview of the legal requirements and ask live questions
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Privacy and Cookie Policy Generator
Create your privacy and cookie policy in minutes.
Customizable from 2000+ clauses, available in 14 languages and automatically updated if the law changes, our generator allows you to create a legal document in minutes and seamlessly integrate it with your website or app.
Manage consent preferences for the ePrivacy, GDPR, CPRA (CCPA amendment) and LGPD. Integrated with the IAB TCF and CCPA Compliance Framework.
Our solution allows you to display a fully customizable cookie banner/consent banner, collect cookie consent, implement prior blocking (including auto-blocking), set advertising preferences, and more.
Our solution smoothly integrates with your consent collection forms, syncs with your legal documents and includes a user-friendly dashboard for reviewing consent records of your activities.
Document all the data processing activity within your organization.
To comply with privacy laws, and particularly the GDPR, companies need to record how they store and use the data they collect from their users. Our solution allows you to easily document all the data processing activities within your organization.
