The Interpretation of ‘Household’ in the Definition of Personal Information in the CCPA

Abstract

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) became enforceable on 1 July 2020. However, the interpretation of ‘household’ within the definition of a consumer’s personal information remains unclear. Since even a person living alone in a housing unit is counted as a household, it is not indicated how an individual within a household differs from a consumer in the definition of personal information. In other words, people who constitute a household are in the same time consumers as defined in the CCPA (California residents), so ‘household’ in the CCPA duplicates the meaning of ‘consumer’ in the definition of personal information. The guidance of the CCPA issued by the Attorney General’s Office actually show that at the end of the day, the household needs to be tied to a consumer in order to validate the request, for example in the guidance § 999.318 it is explicitly said ‘all consumers of the household’. The scope of the definition of personal information and therefore the scope of the CCPA becomes uncertain without answering the question of how ‘household’ is to be understood in the CCPA. This article discusses the answer to this question. CCPA, California Consumer Privacy Act, household, household definition, consumer, personal information, all consumers of the household