If you’ve heard the term “CCPA” floating around, you’re not alone. It’s big news for digital publishers.

CCPA refers to the California Consumer Privacy Act. It is a privacy protection bill for residents and consumers in California. The act was officially launched on Janurary 1, 2020, but there is a six-month no-enforcement grace period, which comes to an end this June.

The regulations behind the CCPA were created to improve data and privacy protection for residents of California. In this regard it is not unlike the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect mid-2018.

What exactly is the CCPA, and how does it differ from GDPR?

CCPA focuses heavily on the sale of personal information. The act itself is designed to regulate how a website uses a user’s personal data and information. CCPA defines personal information as: “information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.” This goes beyond previous privacy definitions of PII data (personally identifiable information) to include anything from IP address to browser history.

While GDPR restricts businesses and websites from unlawfully using user data without consent, the CCPA goes one step further by requiring websites provide a way for users to opt out of this data collection all together. These stricter requirements mean that websites must not only alert users to how they use data, but give users the option to opt-out of their data collection. This includes data used for advertising purposes. And this opt-out requirement is what makes that cookie notice banner you implemented for GDPR insufficient for CCPA.

Do I need to Comply with CCPA?

According to CCPA requirements any business that: “buys, receives for commercial purposes, sells or shares for commercial purposes, the personal information of 50,000 or more California residents, households, or devices each year” must comply with CCPA. This personal information includes advertising. This means that even if you have very little California traffic, you will likely meet the compliance requirement at this limit. And even if you do not, your advertisers all certainly meet this eligibility. This means that all websites that utilize digital advertising must comply with CCPA.

How Publishers Can Be Compliant with CCPA

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has put forth a compliancy framework for all digital publishers to adhere to. This framework is a list of requirements that must be built into a publisher’s CMP (consent management platform) in order for a CMP to be compliant with CCPA. Holy acronym overload!

At Gourmet Ads we realize that changes like this can be stressful and expensive for publishers to implement, especially some of the smaller bloggers. All these acronyms, technical requirements, and legal mumbo jumbo can make anyone’s head spin. That’s why we have made available a simple, free and fully compliant CMP available for all our publishers.

Manage Consent and Adhere to CCPA with Ease

Gourmet Ads provides a free CMP (Consent Management Platform) for all of our publishers. Our CMP is 100% compliant and 100% free. No complicated setup, no hidden fees. We handle everything on our end.

Our CMP can be easily toggled on and off in your user console and we inject it via your ad code, so no additional setup. Compliancy with CCPA will ensure that you continue to receive top advertising dollars, but it is important that you act now. If you are a current Gourmet Ads publisher there is nothing you need to worry about, we have this handled. And if you are not, now is a great time time to get started.

Easily and for free comply with CCPA by becoming a Gourmet Ads publisher, apply today!