The FCC issued a news release in October that announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the FCC and the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA). The CPPA is an agency that has been tasked exclusively to protect consumers’ privacy rights. In California, the agency has both the right to regulate privacy issues as well as enforce privacy laws – a unique position for a regulatory agency.

A partnership with CPPA is significant since the agency is now enforcing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This powerful Act provides a wide range of rights for all consumers.

• Right to Notice. Businesses must inform the public at or before the point of data collection the categories of personal information that will be collected and the purposes for collecting the information.
• Right to Access. Consumers have the right to request that a business disclose the categories of personal information collected, the categories of sources from which personal information is collected, the business or commercial purpose for the information, the third parties with which the business shares personal information, and the specific pieces of personal information the business holds about a consumer. If a business sells or discloses personal information, consumers have the right to request the categories of information being sold or disclosed.
• Right to Opt Out. Consumers have the right at any time to direct a business that sells personal information to stop any future sales.
• Right to Request Deletion. Consumers also have the right to request deletion of personal information – but only the information that was collected from the consumer.
• Right to Equal Services. Businesses can’t discriminate against consumers based upon a consumer’s exercise of any CCPA rights.

California isn’t the first state the FCC has partnered with, and the FCC formed partnerships with Attorneys General from Connecticut, New York, and Illinois. The main thrust of the partnerships is to gather evidence and share resources in the fight against companies that violate consumer privacy. The partnership between the FCC and the States is aimed at coordinating the approach to regulate privacy issues.

The partnership is aligned with the FCC’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force that is tasked with taking the lead on identifying privacy threats and coordinating a response. The Task Force has already tackled issues like cellular SIM swapping scams and major data breaches.

It seems likely that these partnerships will survive the transition to a new administration. There has been bipartisan support for privacy concerns, and the primary role of the partnerships is to share information. The FCC will likely want to continue the effort to identify and pursue bad actors in the market who are engaged in scams and other bad behavior.