Adriana Beach, Of Counsel in our Intellectual Property Practice Group, authored an article titled Privacy enforcement is rising, and data breaches aren't the reason, published in the San Francisco Business Journal.
This article examines how California regulators are shifting their focus from the mere availability of privacy choices to whether those choices actually work. With more than $2 million in data privacy fines issued in 2025 alone, enforcement actions are increasingly targeting broken or ineffective consumer rights flows—particularly opt-out and deletion mechanisms that fail to change how data is handled in practice. The article explores how new California laws, including restrictions on dark patterns, the Opt Me Out Act, and the Delete Act, are raising compliance expectations, and why AI-driven data practices further amplify risk. It also outlines practical steps companies can take now to close the gap between privacy policies and real-world data use.
Read the full article here: Privacy enforcement is rising, and data breaches aren't the reason - San Francisco Business Times