• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 25, 2020

California should delay enforcing the state's sweeping new privacy law until next year, the Association of National Advertisers argues in comments submitted Tuesday to the state attorney general.

The California Consumer Privacy Act gives consumers the right to learn what information has been collected about them by companies, have that information deleted, and prevent the sale of that data to third parties. The law took effect last month, and companies will be subject to enforcement starting in July. 

The ANA argues in its 18-page comments that companies will need an additional six months to comply with the “novel and operationally complex” measure.

“This short forbearance will give businesses the time they need to comprehend and effectively implement the rules to help ensure consumers may appropriately benefit from the rights afforded under the CCPA,” the group writes.

The group's comments come in response to the latest round of Attorney General Xavier Becerra's proposed regulations implementing the law.

In addition to seeking to delay the law's enforcement, the ANA is requesting a host of changes to the proposed rules. Among others, the group is urging Becerra to revise his approach to opt-out signals people make through browsers -- such as do-not track requests.

The newest version of the proposed regulations would require companies to honor browser-based opt-out requests, provided that consumers have affirmatively activated the request.

The ANA says companies should be able to choose between honoring the browser-based signals or providing an alternative opt-out method.

“Mandating that businesses honor user-enabled global privacy settings could have the unintended result of turning the CCPA’s opt out regime into an opt in regime,” the ANA writes. “After receiving a global privacy setting opt out signal, businesses would have no choice but to contact consumers on an individual by individual basis to see if they would like to opt in to sales of personal information to continue receiving the products and services they expect.”