CCPA compliance checklist: How to meet California's privacy standards

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is one of the most widely applied privacy regulations within the United States, comparable to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

With the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) setting stringent guidelines for how businesses handle personal information, it's crucial for companies to ensure compliance. We have compiled a CCPA compliance checklist to help your team maintain compliance with the latest version of the act, as outlined by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). This comprehensive checklist will help you navigate the CCPA requirements and safeguard your business against potential violations.

Read also: GDPR Compliance checklist

Ready? Let's dive in.

• Understanding the CCPA
• Key CCPA compliance requirements
• Your complete CCPA compliance checklist

Understanding the CCPA

What is the CCPA?

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state law that grants California residents rights over their personal information. It allows consumers to know what data is collected, request deletion, opt-out of data sales, and ensures non-discrimination for exercising these rights. The CCPA enhances privacy and consumer protection.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them and the CCPA regulations provide guidance on how to implement the law. This landmark law secures new privacy rights for California consumers, including: The right to know about the personal information a business collects about them and how it is used and shared; The right to delete personal information collected from them (with some exceptions); The right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information; and The right to non-discrimination for exercising their CCPA rights.

- State of California Department of Justice

Why was the CCPA introduced?

The CCPA was formed to give California residents greater transparency and control over their personal data. The regulation was created in response to the increasing reports of data breaches tied to Big Tech organizations that operated poorly defined data processing practices. 

What does the CCPA do?

Like GDPR, CCPA gives consumers greater control over their sensitive personal information. It offers privacy protection for any person residing in California and applies even when they are temporarily outside the state.  

Through companies ensuring they are CCPA compliant, Californians can consent to the type of data collected from them and the purpose of processing. Also, with the act in motion, Californian data subjects can effectively decline the misuse or abuse of sensitive data, such as undisclosed marketing and sales to third parties. 

Essentially, the CCPA establishes an accepted industry standard that prevents discrimination against data subjects who exercise their privacy rights. 

Read also: GDPR vs. CCPA/CPRA compliance: what's the difference?

Which businesses are impacted by the CCPA?

The CCPA applies to for-profit businesses operating in California as long as they fulfill any one of the following criteria:

• The company receives, processes, or transfers data from 100,000 Californians yearly
• The company has gross yearly takings that exceed $25 million
• The company has 50% of its annual revenue from selling or sharing data belonging to Californians

Adhering to the CCPA also helps your company meet the guidelines of other regulations catered to your organization since the act offers extensive coverage of data protection best practices. These may include the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 (CalOPPA).  

Businesses that are subject to the CCPA have several responsibilities, including responding to consumer requests to exercise these rights and giving consumers certain notices explaining their privacy practices. The CCPA applies to many businesses, including data brokers.

- State of California Department of Justice

Read more: What CCPA means for advertisers

Meeting CCPA compliance requirements

The CCPA text states that companies dealing with California data are responsible for supporting consumers/data subjects in upholding their rights. It also sets out that your company should provide consumers with notice that informs them of their rights as covered in the CCPA and expanded CPRA. 

What are the key requirements of the CCPA?

The CCPA requires businesses to disclose data collection practices, provide access to personal data upon request, delete personal data if asked, allow consumers to opt-out of data sales, and avoid discrimination against consumers who exercise these rights. Additionally, businesses must update privacy policies, verify consumer requests, and ensure data security.

In other words, the CCPA requires your company to take proactive measures on top of informing data subjects of their rights by facilitating a system that helps them exercise them. Effective approaches must provide site visitors with clear instructions on how they can submit requests to act upon their CCPA rights.

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Now that we've addressed the basics, let's uncover the need for a reliable checklist to ensure that your company meets the latest regulatory guidelines and avoids harmful outcomes for non-compliance.

Your complete CCPA compliance checklist

To assist your team in staying compliant with the most recent iteration of the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), we have created this checklist for CCPA compliance. 

By adhering to this CCPA privacy policy checklist, your company can ensure that its data practices align with the most up-to-date CCPA regulations, thereby strengthening data privacy programs. A crucial aspect of this compliance entails fulfilling the CCPA privacy notice requirements, which provide clear explanations of a user's rights under the act. It is important to note that businesses are mandated by the CCPA to perform privacy policy updates annually as part of their due diligence.

1. Data inventory and mapping

Start by identifying and documenting all personal information your business collects, stores, processes, and shares. Classify these data types and map out their flow within your organization. This foundational step is crucial for understanding the scope of your data handling and pinpointing areas that require attention.

2. Privacy policy updates

Your privacy policy must be transparent and comprehensive. Your team can optimize privacy policy updates that meet the latest CCPA regulations by clarifying the following steps:

• The type of data collected
• The purpose of data collection
• Categories of sources from which personal information is collected.
• The method of data collection and the data formats involved
• The parties with shared access to the data and the purpose of access
• Contact details for data subjects who require more information about the processing
• Clear and adequate notices for your data subjects based on their CCPA/CPRA rights

This ensures that consumers are fully informed about your data practices.

3. Consumer rights and requests

CCPA regulations revolve around a group of customer rights your company must provide. These rights are similar to the clauses within the GDPR but apply to California residents.

Implement processes to handle consumer requests efficiently. Some of these rights include:

• Right to Know: Consumers should be able to request and obtain information about the personal data you have collected, used, shared, or sold.
• Right to Delete: Have mechanisms in place for consumers to request the deletion of their personal data.
• Right to Opt-Out: Provide an opt-out option for the sale of personal data.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: Ensure consumers are not discriminated against for exercising their CCPA rights.

Additionally, the CPRA amendment that is effective from the 1st of January 2023 includes the enforcement of additional user rights such as:

• Right to correct: Customers have the right to request immediate data changes made based on inaccurate information.
• Right to Limit: Your customers have the right to limit the use of their sensitive personal data to a purpose, such as fulfilling a specified service. 

Read more: CCPA vs CPRA

4. Verification of consumer requests

Develop and implement robust procedures to verify the identity of consumers making requests. This step is vital to prevent fraudulent data access and ensure that requests are legitimate.

5. Training and awareness

Train your employees, especially those handling personal data and consumer requests, on CCPA requirements and your internal procedures. Awareness and education are key to maintaining compliance.

6. Data security measures

Review and enhance your data security practices to protect personal information against breaches and unauthorized access. Implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard data.

7. Service provider contracts

Review and update contracts with service providers to ensure they comply with CCPA requirements. Make sure contracts include provisions that prohibit the use of personal information for purposes other than the specified services.

8. Record keeping

Maintain records of consumer requests and your responses for at least 24 months. Document your CCPA compliance efforts and processes to demonstrate your commitment to data privacy.

9. Opt-Out mechanism

Provide a clear and accessible opt-out mechanism for consumers to prevent the sale of their personal information. This should be easy to find and use, ensuring consumers can exercise their rights without hassle.

10. Minors' data

Implement specific measures for handling data of minors:

• Obtain opt-in consent for the sale of personal information of minors under 16
• Obtain parental consent for the sale of personal information of minors under 13

These additional steps ensure compliance with regulations protecting the data of younger consumers.

11. Regular audits and updates

Conduct regular audits of your CCPA compliance processes and data practices. Stay updated with any changes to CCPA regulations and amend your compliance measures accordingly. Regular reviews help identify and address any gaps in your compliance strategy.

12. Communications and notifications

Ensure clear and transparent communication with consumers regarding their rights and your data practices. Provide timely notifications in case of any data breaches involving personal information. Transparency builds trust and helps maintain compliance. You should ensure that you provide the following notices to your data subjects:

• Notice at Collection: The notice that informs your customer about data collection before going ahead
• Privacy Policy: The main body of your privacy practices that inform customers about your processing methods and terms
• Authorized Agent: A notice that guides customers on how they can assign another party to request CCPA information on their behalf
• Notice of Financial Incentive: Applicable for businesses that offer financial incentive schemes. In such cases, you need to send an explicit notice stating that you offer consumers discounts or other monetary benefits in exchange for their personal information

The CCPA requires businesses to give consumers certain information in a “notice at collection.” A notice at collection must list the categories of personal information businesses collect about consumers and the purposes for which they use the categories of information. (To find out how you can learn what specific information a business has collected about you, see the Right to Know section.) If the business sells consumers’ personal information, then the notice at collection must include a Do Not Sell or Share link. The notice must also contain a link to the business’s privacy policy, where consumers can get a fuller description of the business’s privacy practices and of their privacy rights.

- State of California Department of Justice

By adhering to the CCPA privacy policy checklist and fulfilling these requirements, your company can maintain compliance with the CCPA. It is crucial to distribute an update notice accompanying each policy change, ensuring that data subjects are well-informed about the latest version. Additionally, your website's front page should prominently display a noticeable link to your privacy policy terms, further enhancing transparency and accessibility.

Ketch makes CCPA compliance a breeze

Meeting your company’s obligations under the California Consumer Privacy Act can seem daunting, especially if you aren’t a regulatory or policy specialist. When you partner with Ketch, we help you ensure your company is compliant with the CCPA, as well as all other U.S. State Privacy Laws. 

With the Ketch Data Permissioning Platform, you can: 

• Use our “clicks-not-code” interface to create policies for how data is handled throughout your data ecosystem, leveraging our CCPA privacy policy template 
• Create customized, jurisdictionally-aware privacy notices for your customers
• Deploy Ketch data mapping and discovery tools to find and classify sensitive and personal data in every internal and external system
• Assign data processing purposes (like analytics or targeted advertising) and permissions to data, so you know exactly how your data may be used, sold, and/or shared
• Use our drag-and-drop DSR workflow tool to create automated, end-to-end DSR fulfillment processes that replace internal stakeholder tasks with automated execution of access and deletion requests 

Get in touch today to learn more about how Ketch can help you with CCPA requirements.