{"id":249261,"date":"2026-05-18T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/california-leads-the-charge-as-privacy-fines-soar\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T07:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:00:22","slug":"california-leads-the-charge-as-privacy-fines-soar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/california-leads-the-charge-as-privacy-fines-soar\/","title":{"rendered":"California Leads the Charge as Privacy Fines Soar"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Leads the Charge as Privacy Fines Soar<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.kiplinger.com\/business\/california-leads-the-charge-as-privacy-fines-soar<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-18 19:27:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.kiplinger.com<\/a><\/p>\n

To help you understand the trends surrounding business and technology and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe.) You’ll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest\u2026<\/p>\n

Businesses need to prepare for state privacy law enforcement, and fast. Total privacy fines in all 50 states soared to $3.4 billion in 2025, versus $1.8 billion in 2024, according to a recent analysis by Gartner, a tech market research firm. <\/p>\n

For perspective, the total was just $1.2 million in 2023, before a frenzy of new state enforcement action took off. Penalties hit companies of all sizes and across industries: Health care, finance, software, communications, insurance, entertainment, retail, tech, legal, advertising and more. <\/p>\n

The payouts stem from both state fines and lawsuits brought under these laws by injured parties. The state laws enshrine consumer rights and data protections that companies must abide by. Gartner says 22 states have passed privacy legislation aimed at consumer rights and another 24 are expected to pass privacy legislation in the coming five years.<\/p>\n

State regulations related to the use of AI are expanding fast, too. More than 100 state laws covering artificial intelligence were passed last year, while state agencies also issued new AI-related guidance. For example, in California, the leader in privacy enforcement, a rule covers automated decision-making in job recruitment and employment. <\/p>\n

“A lot of organizations have let their privacy policies atrophy,” says Nader Henein, an analyst at Gartner who compiled the data. Many privacy programs were implemented years ago when California passed its sweeping privacy law in 2018, which was enacted in 2020. The landmark law provides consumers the right to know about the…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Leads the Charge as Privacy Fines Soar https:\/\/www.kiplinger.com\/business\/california-leads-the-charge-as-privacy-fines-soar Publish Date: 2026-05-18 19:27:00 Source Domain:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/9Uckac3mtVz4QMu2Len6Kh-2560-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249263,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249261\/revisions\/249263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}