The Fight Over the Fight Over California’s Privacy Future

In 2019, about a year after the California Consumer Privacy Act was passed—but before it had gone into effect— CA State Sen Bob Hertzberg, who by then was majority leader of the CA State Senate, pitched a new idea to CCPA brain-child Alastair Mactaggart. In a total reversal from his earlier stance, Hertzberg urged Mactaggart to bypass the legislative process. Instead, he should fund and draft a new ballot initiative to improve upon the CCPA. And this one wouldn’t be a bargaining chip. It would go all the way to a vote by the people of California. Thus was born the California Privacy Rights Act, which will appear on Californians’ ballots this fall as Proposition 24. Hertzberg’s flip-flop on the ballot initiative question is just one way in which Prop. 24 has scrambled political dynamics in California. The initiative has also divided privacy advocates who previously fought on the same side.