California, home of Silicon Valley, ramps up online privacy law

Mountain View, Calif., home of Google, is joining other tech centers in pondering new taxes based on employer headcounts -- levies that could jolt Apple and Google -- but if voters endorse the plans, a fresh wave of such measures may roll toward other corporate coffers. (Dreamstime/TNS)

SAN FRANCISCO: California on June 28 passed a strict new law aimed at protecting people’s privacy online, a move that promised to shift the terrain on which internet firms operate in the wake of recent scandals.  

The bill, signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, followed in the spirit of the General Data Protection Regulation, which recently took effect in Europe.