Microsoft To Employ California’s Digital Privacy Law Nationwide

November 12, 2019 TH Author headline,privacy,microsoft,usa

Microsoft says it will honor California’s digital privacy law throughout the US.

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Microsoft said Monday it plans to follow California’s digital privacy law throughout the US. The move expands the reach of the law, which gives consumers more control over how companies collect and manage their personal data.

Microsoft said in a blog post that it’s a strong supporter of the California Consumer Privacy Act, which goes into effect on Jan. 1. Passed in June 2018, California’s law is meant to provide protection to California residents in the absence of federal law and to push the nation to offer more consumer protections.

“CCPA marks an important step toward providing people with more robust control over their data in the United States,” Julie Brill, Microsoft’s chief privacy officer, wrote in the post. “It also shows that we can make progress to strengthen privacy protections in this country at the state level even when Congress can’t or won’t act.”

The CCPA, seen as establishing the most stringent data privacy protections in the nation, allows people to request that data be deleted and gives them the opportunity to opt out of having their information sold to a third party. The push to pass the California privacy law came as data privacy scandals brought the anger of lawmakers and regulators down on Silicon Valley.

The European Union last year rolled out new privacy regulations for its citizens called the General Data Privacy Regulation, but the US doesn’t have a similar law at the federal level.

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