On June 14, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), the first state agency in the country dedicated to privacy, held its first public meeting. In her opening remarks, Acting Chairwoman Jennifer M. Urban introduced each of the Board members: John Christopher Thompson, Angela Sierra, Lydia de la Torre, and Vinhcent Le. The meeting covered an extensive agenda, available here, which highlighted the processes and procedures required by the Board to perform its duties, including issuing final regulations under the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), which will go into effect on January 1, 2023.

The Board discussed the urgent need to hire at least two executive leadership positions to meet its July 1, 2022 deadline to issue final regulations under the CPRA. The Board also approved several subcommittees, including a Regulations Subcommittee, which will be dedicated to developing the CPRA regulations.

During the meeting, the Administrative Procedures Act process that the Board will follow in developing the CPRA regulations was described. Any regulations drafted and proposed by this Board will be sent to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) in the form of a notice package. Once published in the state’s registrar, a minimum of a forty-five day public comment period will allow written comments to be submitted about the proposed regulations. After the public comment period, the Board will adopt the regulations as initially proposed or make additional modifications to the text. If modifications are made, there will be an additional public comment period of fifteen days. If the Board approves the changes, the final regulations will be sent to the OAL for final approval. Approved regulations by the OAL will become effective on a quarterly basis, however, the Board can also request the OAL to make the effective date of any such regulations to be the date of filing with the Secretary of State.

The Board plans to meet on a monthly basis, and all such meetings will be open to the public. Although the Board has not yet set a specific date for its next meeting, the Board will provide at least ten calendar days of notice and release an agenda to the public in advance of each meeting.