REGULATORY ALERT

California’s Attorney General announced on June 2, 2020 that he had submitted proposed final regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to the California Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”). In order to have a chance for the regulations to be finalized before the date that the CCPA will be enforced, Attorney General Xavier Becerra requested an expedited review from the OAL. Nevertheless, the OAL has thirty (30) working days, plus potentially sixty (60) additional calendar days, to review the regulations to confirm that they comply with California’s Administrative Procedure Act.

Despite the likelihood that final regulations will NOT be available by July 1, the AG reiterated that his office is committed to enforcing the CCPA as of that date.  NOTE: only for-profit organizations are covered by the CCPA.  Accordingly, the ATP encourages its members who are within the scope of the law to take reasonable steps to achieve compliance with the CCPA by July 1, including:

  • modification and posting of your Privacy Policy;
  • arrangements to provide required Notice of the collection and use of test taker’s personal information PRIOR to its collection;
  • review of your third-party contracts that may involve the use of test taker’s personal information; and
  • adoption of internal procedures for responding (within the required 45 days) to requests by a test taker to know what personal information your business has on the individual, requests to correct that information, and requests to delete that person’s information.   

Taking these steps will enable you to present evidence of good faith compliance with the CCPA in the event of any enforcement investigations of complaints against your organization.

The Attorney General also issued a Statement of Reasons to explain the relationship between the final regulations and the statute.  According to ATP General Counsel Alan Thiemann, while this summary does NOT relate specifically to testing organizations or testing situations, it is a good summary and overview of the content of the proposed final CCPA regulations.”  The ATP will continue to monitor the situation and provide an update when these regulations are adopted as final.