The California Consumer Privacy Act (commencing with Civil Code § 1798.100) (“CCPA”), as amended by California voters in 2020, grants to California residents certain rights in their private, personal information (“PI”) that is collected by companies with whom they do business. Under the CCPA, PI is defined broadly to encompass non-public records information that could reasonably be linked directly or indirectly to you. PI could potentially include photographs of, or sales information about, your property.

 

Your PI will be collected and likely shared with others, including real estate licensees, a Multiple Listing Service, real estate internet websites, service providers, lenders, and title and escrow companies, to name several possibilities. Businesses that are covered by the CCPA are required to grant you various rights in your PI, including the right to know what PI is collected, the right to know what PI is sold or shared and to whom, the right to request that the business correct or delete your PI, the right to “opt out” or stop the transfer of your PI to others, and the right to limit the use of certain PI which is considered “sensitive.” You may get one or more notices regarding your CCPA rights from businesses you interact with in a real estate transaction. However, not all businesses that receive or share your PI are obligated to comply with the CCPA. Moreover, businesses that are otherwise covered under the CCPA may have a legal obligation to maintain PI, notwithstanding your instruction to the contrary. For instance, regardless of whether they are covered by CCPA, under California law, brokers and Multiple Listing Services are required to maintain their records for 3 years. If you wish to exercise your rights under CCPA, where applicable, you should contact the respective business directly.

 

You can obtain more information about the CCPA and your rights under the law from the State of California Department of Justice (oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa). Additionally, the California Privacy Protection Agency is authorized to promulgate regulations which may further clarify requirements of the CCPA (cppa.ca.gov/regulations/).