Here are this week’s Life Pro Tips.
1. You can ask any company to produce or delete any data they have on you directly from the footer of their website by clicking “Do Not Sell My Personal Information.” This link is required by law under the new CCPA.
The CCPA is the California Consumer Privacy Act. Like the European GDPR that came before it, it guarantees certain individuals’ rights around the use and sale of their data. More specifically, California residents can force companies to produce any data they have on them, and delete it on request.
By law, these companies must follow through with deletion, and reach out to any 3rd parties to whom they sold the data, and have them delete it as well.
As an example, here’s Vizio’s website. You’ll see that “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” is listed in the footer. This specific language is required by law.
If you don’t live in California, you can still benefit from this law. It’s too expensive and resource-intensive to figure out where a person lives and see whether the law applies to them, so companies are adhering to most requests regardless. Companies are rightly assuming that more states will enact such laws, so it’s not worth splitting hairs over where you live.
The CCPA went into effect on 1/1/2020, so the footer links are starting to go live on many sites. By mid-year, enforcement begins, and you will have the ability to sue any company that fails to comply.
Facebook’s footer link isn’t published yet, but here’s a direct link from a Google search: https://m.facebook.com/help/contact/784491318687824
2. If you’re having trouble deciding if you should say something, ask yourself 3 questions about what you’re choosing to say: Is it true, is it helpful, and is it the right time.
3. If you ever find yourself wanting to cut back on alcohol for whatever reason, try replacing alcohol beverages with cold kombucha in a wine glass or other type of nice glass. It has a bitter taste along with effervescence that makes for a good substitute and very low alcohol content.
4. Put monthly or bi-monthly reminders on your phone calendar to call different extended family members. A lot of older relatives are lonely and even a five-minute phone call can make their whole week.
5. Should you ever find yourself homeless, try to get a gym membership.
Planet fitness is probably the ideal gym. $10/month, they give out free food twice a week, 24 hours, many locations. Even if it’s not an option, a gym gives you a place to sh*t, shower and shave, you’ll have a locker to store your things, and you can get out of the elements during rain or extreme heat or cold. If you still have a cell phone, even without a plan most gyms have WiFi. It’s not going to solve all your problems, but if you can scrape together $10 every month you’ll be in a much better position.
