US privacy law compliance for your site, app and business
State laws are placing new requirements on businesses, and, as a result, new legal and technical burdens as well. Compliance can be complicated. Our solutions take the guesswork out of compliance by doing the heavy technical and legal lifting so that you can focus on growing your business.
In general, US state privacy laws like the CPRA (CCPA amendment) and VCDPA may apply to you if you target users based in those states and simultaneously meet any of the requirements outlined below.
CPRA
VCDPA
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) builds on the CCPA’s existing provisions, enriches consumer rights, and adds new requirements for companies that process personal data from California residents.
It applies to legal entities doing business in California for profit, that process consumers' personal information and that meet any one or more of the following requirements:
annual gross revenues in excess of $25M;
annually buys, sells, or shares the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households; or
derives 50% or more of its annual revenues from selling, or sharing* consumers' personal information.
* Can include third-party integrations on your website.
The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) was signed into law in March 2021, and Virginia became the second state in the United States to enact a comprehensive data privacy law after California. The VCDPA goes into effect on January 1, 2023.
It applies to persons that conduct business in Virginia or provide products or services that are targeted to residents of Virginia and that:
during a calendar year, control or process personal data of at least 100,000 consumers; or
control or process personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derive over 50 percent of gross revenue from the sale of personal data.
CPRA
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) builds on the CCPA’s existing provisions, enriches consumer rights, and adds new requirements for companies that process personal data from California residents.
It applies to legal entities doing business in California for profit, that process consumers' personal information and that meet any one or more of the following requirements:
annual gross revenues in excess of $25M;
annually buys, sells, or shares the personal information of 100,000 or more consumers or households; or
derives 50% or more of its annual revenues from selling, or sharing* consumers' personal information.
* Can include third-party integrations on your website.
The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) was signed into law in March 2021, and Virginia became the second state in the United States to enact a comprehensive data privacy law after California. The VCDPA goes into effect on January 1, 2023.
It applies to persons that conduct business in Virginia or provide products or services that are targeted to residents of Virginia and that:
during a calendar year, control or process personal data of at least 100,000 consumers; or
control or process personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derive over 50 percent of gross revenue from the sale of personal data.
See it in action
What's required to comply with laws in the US?
As regulations differ slightly from state to state, keeping up with every scenario can be a tiresome job. iubenda’s smart solutions apply the most robust standards to help you comply with minimum effort. Simply select US State Laws in your generator to comply with the main regulations across the US.
Detailed disclosures via Privacy Policy
US Requirement
Businesses must include specific disclosures in their privacy policies. These disclosures include descriptions of consumer rights, processing partners, purposes, sources and more. This information must be complete, up-to-date and easily accessible throughout your website/app.
Policies are invalid if they're missing the right information
In order to be compliant, your policy must at the very least contain:
Your Privacy Policy under the CPRA (CCPA amendment):
Include the categories of personal information that your business has sold or shared with third parties in the last 12 months, a list of relevant third parties, and your business purpose. You also need to disclose if you have not sold or shared users’ personal information within the last 12 months.
Add a statement regarding whether or not your business knowingly sells or shares the personal information of users under the age of 16.
Include the categories of personal information that your business has disclosed (for business purposes) to third parties in the last 12 months, a list of relevant third parties, and your business’s purpose. You shall also disclose if you have not disclosed consumers’ personal information in the preceding 12 months.
State whether or not your business uses or discloses sensitive personal information for purposes other than those specified in the act.
Provide any links to online request forms or portals so your users can make requests regarding their personal information being collected, disclosed, or sold.
Include the categories of personal data processed by your organization.
Include your organization’s purpose for processing personal data.
Inform your users of how they may exercise their rights (see below), including how they can appeal a decision on their requests. You must provide one or more methods for users to submit a request.
Include the categories of personal data that your organization shares with third parties, if any.
Include the categories of third parties, if any, with whom your organization shares personal data.
Solution
Privacy and Cookie Policy Generator
Create your privacy and cookie policy in minutes.
Customizable from 1700+ clauses, available in 10 languages and automatically updated if the law changes, our generator allows you to create a legal document in minutes and seamlessly integrate it with your website or app.
The CPRA (CCPA amendment) requires you to display a notice at or before the point of collection which informs consumers of which categories of personal information will be collected and the purposes for the collection. Consumers must also be allowed to opt-out of this processing. As a business you are therefore responsible for informing consumers of this option and providing the actual means for opt-out.
In particular, you must:
Detect whether or not a consumer is California-based and whether or not they’ve visited your website before
Instruct relevant third-parties to cease processing the consumer's information when an opt-out request is received.
Serve them a notice at first site visit containing the necessary disclosures
VCDPA requirement
Please be informed that under the VCDPA, there are no indications that opt-out links enabling users to opt-out of the processing of personal data for certain purposes are required.
The provisions of the VCDPA, in fact, treat users’ opt-out rights in the same manner as any other users’ rights granted under the Act.
Your business needs to comply with users’ requests as follows:
You need to comply with the request within 45 days. The response period may be extended one time by 45 additional days when reasonably necessary, as long as you inform your user of any extension within the initial 45-day response period, together with the reason for the extension;
If you decline to take action regarding your users’ request, inform the user of such rejection within 45 days, indicating the relevant justification and instructions on how to appeal the decision;
If you are unable to authenticate a request using commercially reasonable efforts, you are not required to comply with the request, and you may ask for additional information, which is reasonably necessary to authenticate the user and its request.
Solution
Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution for CPRA and VCDPA
Display a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" (DNSMPI) link in the notice and elsewhere on your site/app thereby supporting opt-out from sale
Automatically detect and apply the correct standards (including multiple standards) based on location. Our solution allows you to apply both CPRA (CCPA amendment) and GDPR standards to the same users when legally required
Easily register and automatically pass user preferences (like opt-out) to ad vendors who support the IAB CCPA (CPRA) Compliance Framework (like Google and AdRoll)
iubenda’s Cookie Solution supports Opt-out Preference
Signals like the GPC
and GPP
as required under the CPRA
As mentioned above, similary to the CPRA (CCPA amendment), most of these state laws grant users the right to opt out. In cases where the processing is somewhat manual (i.e not related to onsite scripts such as in the case of Direct email marketing) businesses may need to manually implement the opt-out request.
Furthermore, laws like the CPRA mandates that users may not be contacted for a minimum of 12 months after the request. For this reason it's prudent to keep records of opt out details such as the particular user, the date, and sub-contractors to be notified in the case of requests.
Solution
Consent Database
Our Consent Database hooks onto your web-forms to let you automatically pass consumer preference details like opt-out via API to a centrally managed visual dashboard. You can record all relevant details including date and time of opt-out, privacy policy version available to the user at the time of opt-out, User-Id, email and even IP address to aid in request verification.
Civil penalty of $2,500 per violation or; $7,500 per violation if it is intentional or involves the personal information of a child.
Civil penalty of up to $7,500 for each violation.
While these fines might not seem like a lot when compared to other privacy laws, do consider that these fines apply per individual violation and per consumer. For a business with even just a few customers, these fines can add up to a hefty sum.
Overall, what are the main requirements for websites and app owners?
Sharing and profiling
If you have users from the US, then you may need to comply with laws like the CPRA & VCDPA when it comes to profiling or sharing user information. This means that you must inform users that you’re processing their data this way and give them the ability to stop sharing (opt out).
Consent Records
Some regions like Europe and Brazil require you to keep consent proofs (also known as records of consent). In many cases, without these records, the consents you collect may be considered invalid — placing you in violation of the law.
Cross-region requirements
If you have users from various regions (e.g Europe and the US) then you may need to simultaneously comply with laws from multiple regions like California’s CPRA or Europe’s GDPR. This means having region-specific disclosures available in your privacy documents and more.
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The CPRA becomes law on January 1, 2023, and will be enforced as of July 1, 2023.
At iubenda, we always keep an eye on the latest updates and ensure that all of our documents and products are adjusted in time to help you stay compliant.
If you already have CCPA procedures in place, it might be a good idea for you to start reviewing your processes and taking note of a few things:
The United States gains another data privacy regulation through Virginia’s Data Protection Act (VCDPA).
The VCDPA takes effect on January 1, 2023.
If your organization falls under the scope of the VCDPA, you should begin looking into compliance solutions that are well-trusted and drafted by lawyers.
So, if you haven’t got one already, start to set up all that you need today, and we’ll inform you when the clauses are available!
Or join us at our next webinar to get an overview of the legal requirements and ask live questions
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Compliance for websites and apps
Privacy and Cookie Policy Generator
Create your privacy and cookie policy in minutes.
Customizable from 1700+ clauses, available in 10 languages and automatically updated if the law changes, our generator allows you to create a legal document in minutes and seamlessly integrate it with your website or app.
Manage consent preferences for the ePrivacy, GDPR, CPRA (CCPA amendment) and LGPD. Integrated with the IAB TCF and CCPA Compliance Framework.
Our solution allows you to display a fully customizable cookie banner/consent banner, collect cookie consent, implement prior blocking, set advertising preferences, and more.
Our solution smoothly integrates with your consent collection forms, syncs with your legal documents and includes a user-friendly dashboard for reviewing consent records of your activities.
Document all the data processing activity within your organization.
To comply with privacy laws, and particularly the GDPR, companies need to record how they store and use the data they collect from their users. Our solution allows you to easily document all the data processing activities within your organization.
