California Enacts Data Transfer and Security Restrictions

California has long been at the forefront of regulating Internet and privacy issues, and previously enacted identity theft and privacy laws at a time when most other states were content to defer to the federal government. Having tackled these issues, as well as spam, California has now moved into regulating direct marketing activities and data security generally, a topic the federal government had chosen not to regulate. Notably, these laws do not apply just to electronic data, but apply to data in any other form.