Law could demystify U.S. small businesses
Force compliance with consumer privacy standards
NEW YORK• AR ho de Island software company that sells primarily to businesses is nonetheless making sure it complies with a strict California law about consumers’ privacy.
AVTECH Software is preparing for what some say is the wave of the future: laws requiring businesses to be upfront with customers about how they use personal information. California has already passed a law requiring businesses to disclose what they do with people’s personal information and giving consumers more control over how their data is used — even the right to have it deleted from companies’ computers.
Privacy rights have gotten more attention since news earlier this year that the data firm Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed Facebook user information. New regulations took effect in Europe.
For AVTECH, which makes software to control building environmental issues, preparing now makes sense not only to lay the groundwork for future expansion, but to reassure customers increasingly uneasy about what happens to their personal information.
“People will look at who they’re dealing with and who they’re making purchases from,” says Russell Benoit, marketing manager for the Warren, R.I.-based company.
Aware that California was likely to enact a data law, AVTECH began reviewing how it handles customer information last year. It expects it will increase sales to consumers.
While it may yet face legal challenges, the California Consumer Privacy Act is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020. It covers companies that conduct business in California and that fit one of three categories: Those with revenue above $25 million; those that collect or receive the personal information of 50,000 or more California consumers, households or electronic devices; and those who get at least half their revenue from selling personal information.
Frank Samson hopes the California law will help prevent what he sees as troubling marketing tactics by some in his industry, taking care of senior citizens. When people inquire about senior care companies online, it’s sometimes on sites run by brokers rather than care providers themselves.
“It may be in the fine print, or it may not be: We’re going to be taking your info and sending it out to a bunch of people,” says Samson, founder of Petaluma, Californiabased Senior Care Authority.