A little more than one month from implementation of GDPR, companies may be tempted to relax and exhale (and if GDPR is still causing you headaches, consult our checklist). After all, the U.S. couldn’t be crazy enough to implement something as onerous and difficult, right? RIGHT?!?

Enter California, which appears likely to place an initiative on the November 2018 ballot that could bring some familiar aspects of GDPR to the sixth largest economy in the world. The proposed initiative, the Consumer Right to Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CRPA”), still needs to obtain the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot and then be passed by a majority of California voters. However, given the high profile data misuse and breach stories in the news over the past several months, the possible passage of the initiative must be taken seriously.

Today the European Council approved its version of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The next stage is for the European Commission, European Parliament and European Council (each has its own preferred version of the regulation) to jointly agree on the final text of the regulation. These discussions will commence officially on June 24, 2015, and are currently scheduled to produce the final version of the GDPR by December 2015.

It appears that Congress and the Administration are finally prepared to collaborate on addressing cybersecurity threats facing the nation. The Administration is moving forward on its cyber threat initiative, and a recent New York Times article suggested that Congress is