The users in California may now better protect their sensitive and personal information with Snapchat’s new privacy setting, which is being added to the app. The social media company acknowledged that it is implementing a feature to comply with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which will go into effect on January 1, 2023, and apply to all personal data gathered on or after that date.
Californians voted in November 2020 to approve the CPRA, also known as Proposition 24, which expands upon the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018.
While the CCPA granted residents the ability to view and erase personal information that businesses possessed on them and to choose not to have that data sold, the new law imposes additional restrictions on how businesses can acquire and store data. Additionally, it adds a new category of “sensitive data,” emphasizing that users have the right to object to sharing and selling their personal information, and creates new notification obligations.
The California Privacy Protection Agency was established by legislation to uphold the state’s privacy laws, investigate infractions, and, if necessary, impose penalties.
Meanwhile, Californian residents will have the right to stop the sale and sharing of their personal information as well as the ability to access, modify, delete, and move it without incurring any fees. They will also be able to access their options using “easily accessible” self-serve tools as part of this.
The latter would appear to be addressed by Snapchat’s implementation, which provides a straightforward toggle button in the Privacy Controls portion of the app’s Settings screen. In addition, users will now see a new choice labeled “California Privacy Choices” at the bottom of the list.
The competitive intelligence firm Watchful noticed a new option to “Limit the Use of Sensitive Personal Information” on this screen, which may be accessed by tapping. However, according to this page, enabling the setting would necessitate Snapchat restricting the use of users’ private information, such as precise geolocation.
However, the setting is accessible to all Snapchat users in the United States, including those who don’t reside in the state.
Snapchat said that the new privacy feature is only available to users in California and is being rolled out in accordance with the CPRA.
The update is intriguing since it shows how a well-known mobile app has chosen to abide by the new rules. Additionally, Snapchat’s new privacy option is relatively simple to access, unlike Facebook, where settings are hidden, challenging to find, and frequently moved. One main screen with sections is where you can access the app’s settings. So users won’t have to look far to find the new CPRA-compliant setting.
