March 31, 2020
According to reporting by Global Data Review, Attorney General Becerra has indicated no plans to delay enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). An advisor to the AG reportedly told GDR that his office is “committed to enforcing the law upon finalising the rules or 1 July, whichever comes first.”
CCPA enforcement delay because of COVID-19?
This news is in response to a letter that asked the AG to delay enforcement until January 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the regulations have not been finalized. The original March 17 letter was co-signed by more than 30 companies and trade groups from across industries; it was then revised on March 20, and signed by 60 companies and trade groups. The message reported by Global Data review is essentially the same message the AG’s office made to Forbes last week, before the revised letter was submitted.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, companies are struggling to complete their compliance efforts. Employees are working from home, some are remote, and resources are becoming scarce. As companies look for ways to survive, some are looking at the CCPA, which continues to change as new proposed regulations are issued, as an avenue whereby they may be able to delay some costs. The letter noted that each version of the regulations materially and substantially changes businesses’ obligations. The signatories to the letter, who together employ or represent millions of employees, stated:
Many companies have instituted mandatory work-from-home measures to limit community spread of the virus, meaning that the individuals who are responsible for creating processes to comply with the CCPA are not present in the office to undertake such tasks. Developing innovative business procedures to comply with brand-new legal requirements is a formidable undertaking on its own, but it is an especially tall order when there are no dedicated, on-site staff available to build and test necessary new systems and processes.
AG is mindful of the new COVID-19 reality
The AG’s office has stated that they are “mindful of the new reality created by COVID-19 and the heightened value of protecting consumers’ privacy online that comes with it” and that they “encourage businesses to be particularly mindful of data security in this time of emergency.”
While it may be a difficult time for companies to implement new business processes since nothing is business as usual these days, it is an important time to think about data security and employment policies in the COVID19 environment. While your employees are working remotely, have you trained them in proper data security methods? Have you advised them about protecting their home networks against hacks? Has your company allowed people to start working from personal computers? If so, have you advised employees about how to protect them to the standards you typically require of office computers? What about reimbursement? If an employee is require to work from home and purchase certain software or hardware to ensure protection of company data, have you put a policy in place to reimburse those expenses?
Free COVID-19 business tools
As companies struggle to comply with competing needs in the marketplace as well as to provide care for their employees and customers at this difficult time, SixFifty would like to offer some assistance. We have employed our CCPA and GDPR document automation and request systems to handle some of the problems facing companies as a result of COVID-19. The COVID-19 tools are free—you can sign up here to automate COVID-19-specific employment policies (COVID extended sick leave, remote work, travel, and reimbursement policies) and set up a free questionnaire/ticketing system that can gather information from employees impacted by COVID-19, manage tasks, and automate important communications.
Written by Marie Kulbeth
Marie Kulbeth is a Co-Founder and General Counsel of SixFifty, and the co-director of BYU LawX, a legal design lab dedicated to solving access to justice problems. She works to make the law straightforward for everyone, regardless of education level or income. Marie keeps her passion for equitable, accessible legal services at the forefront of her career. Her role as...
Full Bio and other articles by Marie Kulbeth
About The Author: Marie Kulbeth
Marie Kulbeth is a Co-Founder and General Counsel of SixFifty, and the co-director of BYU LawX, a legal design lab dedicated to solving access to justice problems. She works to make the law straightforward for everyone, regardless of education level or income.
Marie keeps her passion for equitable, accessible legal services at the forefront of her career. Her role as General Counsel allows her to field-test SixFifty’s products to ensure they’ll work for customers.
Education and Experience
Marie attended Brigham Young University, and spent most of her undergrad studying International Politics and Development. It was during a field study in South Africa that she first decided to become a lawyer. As she researched the new South African constitution and worked with community organizers, Marie became fascinated with the development of the rule of law and how it in turn fosters economic development.
After undergrad, she attended BYU Law, where she continued focusing on improving equity, specifically through access to justice. She spent time interning with a nonprofit at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and with the United Nations International Tribunal for the Rwandan Genocide. At home, she interned with Catholic Charities, focusing on supporting asylum cases. Marie’s work with communities and governments across the globe broadened her understanding of how the law can either uplift or further harm underserved populations.
After law school, Marie worked as a judicial law clerk for the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She then practiced commercial litigation in Salt Lake City before returning to BYU Law, where she became an Assistant Dean. During her time at BYU Law, Marie built a diversity recruiting program and a storytelling program. Although she has left academia, she continues to keep a hand in by teaching a legal design class at BYU Law School and an undergraduate international politics class that focuses on development and diplomacy at BYU’s Kennedy Center. Both courses help students increase their community engagement and use their skills to create change.
Achievements with SixFifty
Marie’s work with both SixFifty and LawX focuses on making the law less complicated and
more equitable for both companies and individuals.
Marie’s legal specialty is privacy. She has additional focus areas in legal technology; diversity, equity and inclusion; employment; and compliance. She enjoys the opportunity to build products with the legal product team, including pro bono products. This allows her to work with communities she cares about – and complements the work she continues to do at BYU.
With Marie’s guidance and experience, SixFifty is able to offer privacy products that allow even small companies to easily comply with global privacy restrictions. Her passion for making the law accessible to everyone is evident in our pro bono products, which help individuals access free legal help for common issues.
Get to Know Marie
When she’s not helping to advance SixFifty’s mission, Marie travels whenever she can. Keep your eyes open and you may find her anywhere in the world – one of her favorite trips was a seven-day motorbike tour of northern Thailand. She especially loves to canyoneer in southern Utah and explore wilderness areas.
Marie also continues her community development and education work. She is on the board of several nonprofits, including one that runs primary schools in South Sudan and the Utah Tribal Relief Foundation. She recently joined the board of the Mountainland Association of Governments, which focuses on making loans to entrepreneurs from underserved communities who lack access to traditional funding. She’s also a Model UN legend! She is the Executive Director of BYUMUN, Utah’s premier high school Model United Nations learning conference.
Marie loves podcasts and will nerd out on anything related to the law, the history of the English language, and anything done by the people at Radiolab.
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