It is not news that California’s laws reflect personal rights as seen through a liberal political lens.  Thus a few years ago when California adopted an atypical law giving consumers the right to learn the nature of personal information collected by a business and to be assured it would not be resold, there was little surprise; a couple of other States have similar laws.  (Beginning in 2023, consumers also will have right to cause the deletion of such information, creating problems of definition for companies that often claim that such information is needed for client service.)

In 2023, these provision automatically become applicable to employees of a company.  Putting aside that information about an employee could be recorded in a million places within a company and in both electronic and hard copy form, surely some such information is needed in support of the employment and compensation relationships.  How do companies make sure they find it all, and what happens if they must delete it all?  How does a company track employee compensation and insurance, retirement benefits, etc.?

I expect there will be clarifying regulatory pronouncements so stay tuned.  Even California voters do not want the State economy, largest in America and much larger than that of very many entire countries, to grind to a halt over protection of employee data.