CALIFORNIA: CCPA notice should include medical information

If you’re conducting pre-shift health screenings as part of your COVID-19 (coronavirus) prevention efforts, be sure you understand how gathering medical information could implicate the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA). As we previously reported, the CCPA took effect on January 1, 2020, and requires certain employers to provide disclosures to applicants, employees, and contractors who are California residents before obtaining their personal data for employment purposes. Medical information gathered and stored during health screenings qualifies as personal data under the CCPA. If you’re subject to the CCPA and you’re taking workers’ temperatures or asking health screening questions, your CCPA disclosure should address those activities.

Tips: Use Vigilant’s Model Form, Notice of Data Privacy for Employees and Applicants, to comply with the CCPA if you’re storing data collected during medical screenings of applicants, employees, or contractors. Also, the California Attorney General has issued final proposed regulations to further define and clarify the CCPA. Vigilant will report when regulations are finalized and update our model notice as necessary. You can see the latest status and a copy of the proposed rules on the Attorney General’s CCPA web page. In the meantime, contact your Vigilant Law Group employment attorney with questions about how the CCPA applies to your operations.