Page 9 - Kattison Avenue - Fall 2025 - Issue 15

OOPS, He Did It Again:

California governor Gavin Newsom has signed a trio of new privacy measures into law, including
a measure to facilitate consumer use of opt-out preference signals (OOPS) on web browsers.

By Cynthia Martens

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed three new bills into exercising your privacy rights at scale as simple as clicking a
law on October 8, giving consumers greater control over their button in your browser,” said Tom Kemp, executive director of
privacy and personal data online and raising hackles in the tech the California Consumer Privacy Agency, which sponsored the
and advertising sectors. new legislation.
Assembly Bill 656 requires social media companies to make The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) President and CEO
it easier for consumers to automatically delete their personal Leigh Freund issued a press statement expressing concerns
data if they abandon the platforms. Senate Bill 361 bolsters about the potential impact of the Opt Me Out Act. “While the
existing state law protections by giving consumers additional NAI supports easy to use consumer controls, I’m disappointed
information about the types of personal data that brokers that California is mandating browser-based opt-out preference
collect. And, perhaps most controversially, Assembly Bill 566, signals without safeguards to ensure that those signals represent
also known as the California Opt Me Out Act, amends the authentic, valid consumer choices,” he said. “Browsers are the
California Consumer Privacy Act by requiring web browsers to gateway to the free and open internet, and browser-based
carry an opt-out preference signal, such that consumers can signals should be free of anti-competitive default settings that
reject all requests to consent to sales of personal data in one unfairly disadvantage ad-supported businesses.”
fell swoop, rather than having to make their preference known As the tech and advertising industries adjust their business
across multiple websites.
practices to comply with the Opt Me Out Act, we’ll be watching
The Opt Me Out Act, which will become effective on January for any further modifications to the law that may arise before its
1, 2027, “puts the power back in consumers’ hands and makes effective date.

Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock.com

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