Sherman Oaks, CA – The United Chambers of Commerce Government Affairs Committee took the following positions. 

The United Chambers of Commerce at its July monthly Government Affairs meeting took the following positions on joining a coalition and advocating the city.

In a unanimous vote, United Chambers has decided to join the Make Privacy Work Coalition which looks to help both businesses and consumers in regards to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which will take effect January 1, 2020. In it’s simplest form, the CCPA is a bill that enhances privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California. A businesses falls under the CCPA if they have over 50,000 data points that have been collected over a year. These data points can consist of a combination of credit cards, I.P addresses, or online visitors.

Make Privacy Work Coalition is a group of businesses and individuals that look to fix certain previsions of the CCPA that seem to do more harm than good. The problem with the CCPA is the clarity in which it is written allows for many unintended rules that both businesses and consumers have to oblige by. As it is written, if someone were to rob a store and then request that store and any other business nearby delete all footage of them, then the business must comply or they would be fined. The Make Privacy Work Coalition looks to prevent these gray areas by voting on other bills and amendments to the CCPA. Some other issues regarding the CCPA includes responding to data, vulnerability to identity theft, expensive compliance costs that have not been considered, and no more targeted ads. 

In the second and last vote of the day United Chambers voted unanimously to advocate the city to act on a timely matter on issues that are favorable to the establishment, growth, and retention of businesses, especially small business. There have been motions that have expired on a two-year rule or will soon expire without action.  

The United Chambers of Commerce Government Affairs Committee meets monthly on the 3rd Monday of each month and is focused on bringing forth and taking positions on issues that can affect our San Fernando Valley businesses.