CCPA will make businesses smarter and more profitable

California recently passed the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) to enforce greater data privacy. Many people think the law is overly-burdensome and bad for business.

I disagree.

Before I explain why, you need a little background.

Under this law, any California resident can ask any California company over $25m for the personal data under their management. One of the best ways for firms to become compliant with CCPA is to organize all their data in one place for better data governance. This allows for easy access to a ton of data, allowing firms to respond to CCPA requests quickly.

So, why do I think this is a good law? Because a side benefit of CCPA is that it forces your data process to be as efficient as possible. And efficiency is profitability. Thus, preparing for CCPA compliance actually means making your business smarter and more profitable.

For instance, let’s say your firm is struggling with CCPA compliance. You learned (hopefully from this blog post) that the key to compliance is good data governance — putting your data in one place. After breaking down your data silos and unifying your data, not only are you compliant with CCPA, you now can actually get answers to important business questions such as, “Who are our best customers?” “What is an underperforming page that I can further monetize?” “What is a hidden gem of content that I can make more money from?” These questions were all-but impossible to answer before you became CCPA compliant.

That’s why I believe CCPA is actually a great piece of legislation. Good data governance means having visibility, control, and a unified understanding of how data is being managed across your organization. It also means immediately having answers for business questions. If your organization is following strong data governance practices to improve revenue and product, then you should have no problem complying with CCPA or any other similar law, and you will run a smarter, more profitable business.