IVR and CCPA: Easy Access to Digital Privacy Management

The California Consumer Privacy Act

Data privacy and security is an ever-present concern in our increasingly digital lives. Recently, the state of California took legislative measures to ensure that consumers have greater control over their data by passing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which goes into effect on January 1, 2020.

Naturally, this begs the question: why should companies outside of California care about a state law there? CCPA is important because it protects California residents. That means that any company that serves people in California may be subject to CCPA. Due to the size of California’s population and economy, this legislation will have a significant ripple effect across the country. Any company that does significant business in the state of California needs to be aware of the CCPA.

How Do Consumers Benefit from CCPA?

This new law is designed to give consumers greater control over how companies collect and use their private information. To that end, according to the National Law Review:

“The CCPA gives California consumers four primary new rights: the right to receive information on privacy practices and access information, the right to demand deletion of their personal information, the right to prohibit the sale of their information, and the right not to be subject to price discrimination based on their invocation of any of the new rights specified above.”

The law further stipulates that companies must provide consumers with a means to exercise these rights. It also states that, at a minimum, businesses must provide a dedicated webpage and an 800-number to accept consumer requests vis-à-vis CCPA.

How IVR Can Help with CCPA

IVR is all about automating phone calls, and this is where it can help companies simplify processing CCPA requests. With a secure IVR application, businesses can collect customer information over the phone and seamlessly pass that along to their backend systems for processing.

These same companies can also use IVR to proactively communicate with consumers. CCPA includes time-based deadlines for when companies need to comply with consumer requests. This could include notifications alerting them that their request was received, processed, or completed. This level of transparency helps to build and/or maintain trust with consumers.

IVR can handle these types of complex processes automatically, without human intervention. That makes IVR a cost-effective and efficient tool for dealing with CCPA requests.

Get More from Your Voice Channel

The mandate that companies have an 800-number to deal with CCPA may force companies to revisit technology they’ve neglected: IVR. CCPA may function as a catalyst, providing an entry point for businesses to evaluate and update their IVR offerings with more current and advanced technology. Companies that don’t use IVR already may find that even a few basic IVR use cases significantly improve their overall customer service offerings.

CCPA gives consumers the power to control the way businesses handle their data. At the same time, it provides companies with an opportunity to improve their voice channel and to enhance and improve their relationship with their customers.