Consumer privacy: consumer request for disclosure methods.

Existing law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, commencing January 1, 2020, grants a consumer various rights with regard to the consumer's personal information that a business collects, discloses for a business purpose, or sells. Among these rights, the act authorizes a consumer to request that a business that collects, discloses for a business purpose, or sells the consumer's personal information to disclose to the consumer specified information related to those activities. The act imposes certain responsibilities on the Attorney General in connection with the act, including the creation of regulations and providing guidance on how to comply with the act. The act provides that an above-described business is required, in a form that is reasonably accessible to consumers, to make available to consumers 2 or more designated methods for submitting requests for specified information required to be disclosed, including, at a minimum, a toll-free telephone number, and, if the business maintains an internet website, a website address. This bill would provide that a business that operates exclusively online and has a direct relationship with a consumer from whom it collects personal information is only required to provide an email address for submitting requests for information required to be disclosed, as specified. The bill would, if the business maintains an internet website, require the business to make the internet website address available to consumers to submit requests for information required to be disclosed, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1798.130 of the Civil Code proposed by AB 25 and AB 1355 to be operative only if either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last.