Greetings from Portsmouth, New Hampshire!

With 2018 finally behind us, 2019 is shaping up to be another busy year for the privacy profession. We ended last year with a discussion of the different proposals for a federal privacy law, including the Data Care Act, which would place fiduciary-like duties on companies doing business online. In case you missed it, I talked with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., about the bill (she is a co-sponsor). Currently, it's only supported by Democrats, so there's a long way to go, but now that we have the 116th Congress in place, I expect quite a bit of action around competing federal bills in the coming months. 

That said, hopefully, the government shutdown will end very soon, though it's looking like this will take a while. To those of you affected by this shutdown, our thoughts are with you.

This year's privacy news won't just come out of Capitol Hill, however. The California Department of Justice announced this week it is hosting a series of public forums on the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. According to a news release from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, "The forums will provide an initial opportunity for the public to participate in the CCPA rulemaking process. As part of this process, the Department of Justice invites all members of the public to speak at these events." In the next month, the Cal DOJ will host six hearings across the state. If you end up going to one of these, I'd love to hear how it went. Please drop me a line if you do go. 

The IAPP will also host our first-ever CCPA Comprehensive 2019 in Fremont, California, Feb. 25. This daylong event is a deep dive into the CCPA and aims to help you and your organization get a foothold on the law's compliance obligations. We've put together a stellar lineup of privacy pros to speak on a variety of sessions. It will even include a full session dedicated to answering audience questions and another to delve into case studies in ad tech, smart cars, health and finance. The event will also look into how the CCPA matches up with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, among others. 

There's a good chance this event could sell out, so if you're interested, I wouldn't wait too long to register. 

In the meantime, here's to a successful and fortune-filled 2019 for all of you.