Why do websites have separate privacy policies/rights for Californians? Is it like Florida, where anybody has access to any police interrogations or court proceedings?

11 comments

1. Each state makes and has its own laws. CA probably has a law with privacy rights different enough from the other states that websites need to make a separate privacy policy for CA users.

2. California has some of the most strict privacy laws in the country so companies are doing the good old CYA

3. Most of the developed world and California havw data protection laws. The rest of the usa (and australia) do not.0”

4. It’s related the the California Consumer Privacy Act, recently modified by the California Privacy Rights Act. There are separate policies in place because California requires very specific content to be included in a privacy notice which it demands be presented in a format which is different than anywhere else on earth.

   The CCPA/CPRA was passed in hurried and poorly planned out way blending rushed legislative processes with a ballot initiative. In my view, the transparency obligations are very poorly thought out and written, and get in the way of writing a clear and understandable privacy notice. As a lawyer who practices in this area, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a CCPA/CPRA notice that’s clearly written, and I certainly haven’t been able to make one that is as clear as I would like. So what pretty much everyone does is shrug their shoulders, write a California-specific policy to meet the obligations of the law, then maintains a different one for the rest of their footprint.

5. California has some state specific privacy laws and they have a huge population. So the companies are just doing their due diligence.

   Florida does indeed have very open “sunshine laws” for public records and just as you said it makes following the criminal justice system very easy for reporters.

6. Lots of states have similar sunshine laws, but some states try to protect the accused when they havent been convicted of anything, yet.

7. Have you ever noticed how brand new clothes in the store are all wrinkle-free? It’s standard practice to put some sort of chemical on them to make them this way. California has a CYA policy to reveal this on tags on the clothing. But clothing is shipped everywhere, and they are not going to make separate tags. So you will see a chemical warning for California residents on your clothing tag sometimes.

8. California has better privacy and consumer protection laws than most of the country.

9. It’s not as bad as in France where you have to click way more often.

10. California passed specific, more stringent privacy laws than the rest of the country has

11. Do people in other states get those popups all the time? I thought I only get them because they can tell from my IP that I’m in California.