EPIC, Coalition Commend CPPA for Affirming Obligation for Global Opt-Out Signal

Common Sense Media, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, EPIC, Ranking Digital Rights, and Virginia Citizens Consumer Council sent a letter to the California Privacy Protection Agency today, commending their proposed regulations reaffirming that businesses are legally obligated to honor global opt-out preference signals. The California Privacy Rights Act requires businesses to honor global opt-out preference signals to enable opt-out rights, which some businesses are interpreting as optional. The coalition also warns the agency against allowing businesses to interpret this requirement through the use of obtrusive pop-up notifications or degraded service, which would punish users who exercise their rights. EPIC recently urged the Florida legislature to include global opt-out requirements in their privacy bill and recommends that the FTC include it as part of a privacy rulemaking.