California is running start a data privacy bill for retailers

Personal data is essential for every retailer today. This helps in marketing the products, catering to customers’ needs along with building brand loyalty programs. California passed California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to secure consumers data which will probably be effective from January 2020.

European regulators already placed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to standardize the laws for consumer data protection in all 28 EU countries. The rules are stringent, and many retailers are learning to comply.

Retailers in California have 16 short months time to make necessary changes in their data strategies and invest in compliant tools. Let’s get into the bill’s requirements:

• Retailers should reveal the information they are generating, disclosing or selling
• Consumers can have a control on the data that are collected and sold
• Consumers can get the same price as other consumers despite their privacy preferences

To comply with the rules, retailers should have good understanding of their data— the source, how it’s used and where it lives to avoid future selling. For this, retailers have to collaboratively work with vendors, suppliers, and third-parties with whom they naturally share information.

This is a long process to many global retailers and they will have to invest separately for new management infrastructures, tools and processes.