California Ballot Proposal Would Tighten Data Privacy Rules

A San Francisco developer who pressured California lawmakers into enacting the nation’s most sweeping data privacy act is pushing a ballot measure to expand the law.

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Alastair Mactaggart’s proposed November 2020 measure, to be unveiled this week, aims to protect the California Consumer Privacy Act that is due to take effect on Jan. 1 by, among other things, creating a new state agency to enforce the privacy protections.

Voter-enacted initiatives are much harder to alter than laws passed through the legislative process.

“The only thing I want to make sure is they can’t undo the act,” Mactaggart told the San Francisco Chronicle about technology companies. “There are basically unlimited resources on one side of the fight. If you don’t do anything, they will win eventually.”

Mactaggart appeared willing to spend millions to back his new proposal, just as he did last year.