2023 State Privacy Laws And Regulations Bring Extensive Data Protection Assessment Requirements

On January 1^st of this year, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act ("VCDPA") and amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") went into effect. Later this year, the Colorado Privacy Act ("CPA"), Connecticut's Public Act No. 22-15 (known as the "Connecticut Privacy Act" or "CTPA"), and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act ("UCPA") will go into effect as well. Aside from the UCPA, these laws will obligate covered entities to document and assess certain processing activities in formal data protection assessments, which will be available to regulators. The purpose is to require companies to look critically at high-risk data processing activities and avoid unjustifiable risks and negative impacts on data subjects. Assessments can also serve the purpose of maintaining current data inventories and retention schedules and ensuring that processing is not inconsistent with the notified purposes at the time of collection.