Microsoft will honor California's CCPA privacy law across the U.S.

Microsoft said in a blog post on Monday that it would honor California's privacy law throughout the United States, expanding the impact of a strict set of rules meant to protect consumers and their data. Microsoft said in the post it was a "strong supporter" of the California Consumer Privacy Act, known as CCPA, which will go into effect on Jan. 1. The California law is widely expected to harm profits over the long term for technology companies, retailers, advertising firms and other businesses dependent on collecting consumer data to track users and increase sales. The law raised fears among companies of a rise in a patchwork of state laws and prompted efforts in Washington to write federal legislation that would pre-empt state efforts. In September, Reuters was first to report that the federal privacy bill is not likely to come before Congress this year as lawmakers disagreed over several issues.