The increasingly popular search engine, DuckDuckGo,
has announced that it, and 23 other technology companies, have backed a proposed amendment called Privacy for All Act of 2019 that will extend the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to further protect the users of services. The CCPA is set to come into effect in 2020 and alone brings major improvements in individual privacy rights.
Under the CCPA, users will have the right to know which information is collected, shared, or sold, and will be given the right to opt-out of having their information sold on to other parties. With the Privacy for All Act of 2019, these protections are extended and give users the right to opt-out of having their information shared (and not just sold). Companies that are found to be sharing information, could, under this law, be sued by consumers.
Writing in their letter, the signatories to the letter said:
“We are a broad coalition of for-profit companies that share that privacy commitment and support the CCPA. All of us have California customers and we are currently subject to CCPA’s requirements or may be subject to them in the foreseeable future. As companies that put user privacy at the core of our products and services, we also support legislation that builds on CCPA’s foundation. Our relationship with our users is built on trust—trust that the data they provide to us and other companies will be used only in the ways they understand and expect.”
There are several well-known brands that have signed the letter, including DuckDuckGo,
Brave, Vivaldi, Disconnect, Ghostery, Nextcloud,
Purism, Tutanota,
MyCroft AI,
ProtonMail, Tresorit, Lavabit, and Ecosia.
