Employers Must Comply With New California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) COVID-19 Requirements as of Ju
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) had only been in effect for a short time before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, raising a host of new privacy challenges for employers. As California businesses begin to reopen and the CCPA enforcement date of July 1, 2020, has passed, employers should take immediate action to evaluate existing privacy practices and implement the requirements of the CCPA. This includes providing notices to consumers about what information will be collected during health screenings and/or temperature checks, and putting in place reasonable security measures to safeguard personal information.
How Does COVID-19 Impact Employers’ CCPA Obligations?
Due to the requirements of many local public health orders, you may find your business collecting additional health information, travel information, biometric data, geolocation data, or even information about employees’ family members with COVID-19 symptoms. This information undoubtedly meets the definition of personal information under the CCPA.
At or before collection, you are obligated to provide employees with a notice if no prior notice covering the information has already been provided. Additionally, you will also need to list the COVID-19 related business purposes that the collected information will be used for, such as reducing the risk of COVID-19 in the workplace and to permit contact tracing. Whether collecting information from at-home employee self-screenings or taking temperatures at the door of the workplace, it is critical that you comply with the notice requirement under the CCPA. Failure to do so could result in civil penalties from $2,500.00 for a non-intentional violation to $7,500.00 for an intentional violation.
It is important that you provide this notice at or before the collection of health information. For example, if you require employees to perform at-home screening and report their results via an online survey, you may provide the notice on the website page where employees will input their results. For in-person screenings, you should give the notice before the employee or customer provides answers to health screening questions or has their temperature taken.
If your business has not already provided this CCPA notice, now is the perfect time to contact the Thakur Law Firm, APC to have one of its experienced attorneys prepare a notice for your business that includes the general information collected about consumers, as well as the information that you collect from health screenings and temperature checks.
