California Privacy Board Warned of Lawsuits over ADMT Rules

Lindsey Tonsager’s commentary was included in a Daily Journal article about a California Privacy Protection Agency public meeting held to discuss definitions of automated decision-making technology (ADMT).

Lindsey commented, “What we’ve heard so far in the meeting is that some of the cost is driven by the broad scope of the regulations: How is ‘automated decision making’ being defined? How is ‘significant decision’ being defined?”

“These definitions, and how narrow or broad their scope, will either bring in wide swaths of businesses that otherwise would not be regulated and the more companies that have to do a privacy risk assessment or a cyber security audit, the costs go up.”

Lindsey added that legal staff presenting the regulation definitions indicated the public might only have 15 days to comment on the next iteration that comes back following the staff’s meeting with the board. “Given how much pushback there’s been, 15 days felt a bit rushed to get public feedback on such significant topics,” Lindsey said. “One thing we saw today is some concern that the process might be barreling ahead at a faster clip than was originally anticipated.”