If your state has a Data Privacy Act (DPA) in place, you have important data privacy rights. California led the way when they enacted the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) in 2018. Many other states followed soon after including Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Virginia, and most recently Texas and Oregon. Although each state’s DPA regulations vary, the premise is the same; consumers have rights when it comes to their personal data.
Here are some of the basics;
You can request that a business disclose the information they have collected about you, including:
-The categories and specific pieces of personal information.
-The purposes for which they use that information.
-The categories of third parties with whom they share or disclose your information.
-Whether they sell your information and to whom.
-You can ask businesses to delete your personal information, with some exceptions (such as when it’s necessary for legal or business purposes).
-You have the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. Businesses must provide a clear way for you to opt-out, usually through a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link on their website.
-If a business has incorrect information about you, you can request corrections. Although this is the right of any consumer regardless of your state of residence.
-You can limit how businesses use and disclose sensitive personal information about you. Sensitive data includes things like your health information or Social Security number.
To assert any of these rights it is up to the consumer to contact data providers. This can prove to be a rather big task. Knowing who to contact and what to ask can be confusing and time consuming. As is to be expected, third party companies, many of which are not located in the US, have stepped in to assist consumers with offers to contact data providers on the consumer’s behalf. Unfortunately, not all companies are truly focused on helping the consumer but rather on charging consumers for a service they may not even need. Let me explain. A third-party company markets to individuals with vague descriptions and misleading information. For example, not educating consumers about the Data Privacy Act that does or does not apply to them. How do residents of states such as North Carolina, Arkansas, and Ohio come to believe that the California Consumer Privacy Act applies to them, when they aren’t California residents? It can be difficult to discern whether their intent is to protect the consumer, as they claim, or simply to “scam” the consumer to collect a fee.
So, if you’re a data provider, what can you do to deal with the seemingly endless lists of opt-out requests you are surely familiar with? Digital Segment has developed Consent Control, a tool to help with the tedious opt-out process. Consent Control integrates into your opt-out website to collect and respond to opt-outs automatically. It also integrates into many of the third-party data collection agencies so their requests can be automated as well. Why didn’t we think of this sooner?
With several more states launching their own data privacy acts in the coming months and into 2025, there is no better time than now to learn how Consent Control can ease the burden of opt-out requests for your company. Give Digital Segment a call today to learn more.