We made it. One of the most charged and anticipated elections in history, in one of the most challenging years our country has seen, is finally behind us. Regardless of what side of the aisle your votes were cast upon, we can all agree a lot was at stake in this year's elections, all the way down to the local level. One of the most notable initiatives among state ballots this year was the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), which, as expected, passed with a majority vote.

In the simplest of terms, CPRA adds a lot of muscle to the existing stipulations in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). When CCPA was first enacted, it was widely compared to Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but in reality, the data privacy requirements in CCPA were only a small fraction of those in GDPR. That will ultimately change when CPRA takes effect in January 2023, and moves California privacy regulation closer to GDPR standards.

Over the next year or so, California lawmakers will begin creating the specific regulations and entities that will facilitate CPRA. The law will at that point become effective, and enforcement will begin in June 2023, with a lookback to January 2022. Any company currently obligated under CCPA will be affected by the passage of CPRA. And while many of the law's nuances are yet to be determined, there are a number of substantial changes that organizations need to understand, in order to prepare.