California just strengthened its digital privacy protections even more. Are federal privacy laws next?

The California ballot measure Proposition 24, or the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), has passed, pushing the state even further ahead of the rest of America when it comes to data privacy legislation. CPRA adds to California’s existing law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). CCPA is one of the strongest privacy laws in a country with few of them, giving Californians the power to know what data businesses have and collect about them and to tell those businesses not to sell data to anyone else. CCPA went into effect on Jan 1, and it wasn’t perfect by any means, but most privacy advocates seemed to agree that it was a good start, both for the state and for any other state or federal laws its passage may inspire.

Seeing Californians pass another digital privacy law may be the encouragement the federal legislature needs to get going on its own version. And CPRA advocate Alastair Mactaggart thinks Proposition 24’s rules that make it very difficult to change the law will tell businesses — and federal lawmakers — that privacy laws are here to stay.