Survey: 56% of Businesses Not Prepared for CCPA

DULUTH, Ga. — Enterprise consent, privacy, and preference management solutions provider PossibleNOW announced the results of its latest survey, showing 56% of U.S. businesses polled reported they do not expect to be fully prepared to meet California Consumer Privacy Act requirements by the Jan. 1, 2020, date of enforcement.

When survey respondents were asked why their organization wouldn’t be CCPA-compliant:

• 35% said their primary reason is the cost of becoming compliant.
• 32% stated they were waiting to see how the CCPA will be enforced.
• 17% said they didn’t think their organization is large enough to face fines.
• 11% said the law is new to them and they are unsure of the requirements.
• 4% stated they didn’t think the law applies to them.

Penalties for noncompliance are $2,500 per record for each unintentional violation and $7,500 per record for each intentional violation. So, a company that doesn’t honor or mismanages 1,000 consumer privacy requests could face a fine ranging from $2,500,000 to $7,500,000. 

While many factors come into play such as the size of a company and the scope of the project, the average cost for available compliance technology and implementation is typically less than one full time employee. Businesses face unnecessary financial risks associated with fines by choosing to delay addressing their compliance gaps.

“Just as with GDPR, a significant number of businesses are caught between the cost and effort of complying with CCPA and the probability of enforcement actions against them,” said Eric Tejeda, marketing director at PossibleNOW. “There are heightened concerns surrounding the CCPA specifically because of California’s strict approach to legislation across all facets of business within the state. Companies should actively seek the counsel of a privacy compliance organization as the deadline is quickly approaching. As time draws short, resources become more scarce and implementation becomes more costly.”