The Fight Over California’s Privacy Bill Has Only Just Begun

Two months after the quick passage of a bill that gave California residents unprecedented control over how companies use their data, lobbying groups and trade associations are pushing for changes that they say would make the law easier to implement before it goes into effect in January 2020. Privacy advocates worry that pressure from powerful businesses could end up gutting the law completely.

At the most basic level, the law allows California residents to see what data companies collect on them, request that it be deleted, know what companies their data has been sold to, and direct businesses to stop selling that information to third parties. But the task of shaping the specifics is now in the hands of lawmakers—and the special interests they cater to.