Hello and welcome to another MLEX podcast. I'm Amy Miller, MLEX's senior privacy and data security reporter in San Francisco, California.

Privacy has become a global buzzword,

and regulators around the globe are enacting sweeping new data protection laws that carry

stiff penalties for violations. Those new rules and regulations could have a significant impact

on tech companies' profits. So why now? Here to talk about what's happening around the globe is Mike Swift,

M-Lex's chief global digital correspondent here in San Francisco. Hi, Mike. Hey, Amy. And Rodrigo

Rousseau, our correspondent in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Hi, Rodrigo. Hello, Amy. Hello, Mike.

So let's start with California, Mike, which is always a bit of an outlier in the U.S.

The governor just signed a law that lets California residents opt out of data collection among many provisions.

What does the law do exactly, and how are they able to get this passed?

The last few months have really been kind of an unprecedented period in data protection law around the world.

And one of the really big new laws which was passed was the California Consumer Privacy Act,

which went through the legislature in an incredibly fast two-day period.

It was part of a deal that allowed the legislature to retain

control over a data protection law by removing the voter initiative that was going to be voted on

by voters in California. So it's definitely a very important new law. It allows voters to opt out of

having their personal information sold to third parties. And it includes possibly pretty substantial

penalties to companies that violate that law. Well, there's been some wrangling, though, over the laws

and people have brought to the

attention of legislature some concerns they have, including the Attorney General. What kind of

concerns is the Attorney General raised? What role is the Attorney General supposed to play?

Yeah, as we've recorded in a number of stories, this law was passed so quickly that there

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