Alastair Mactaggart is a major thorn in Big Tech’s side.
The wealthy Bay Area real estate developer spent upwards of $9 million on California ballot initiatives that led to the nation’s strongest privacy law. Now he’s a board member of the agency that’s responsible for enforcing the law, all in his quest to protect consumers’ privacy rights.
The California Privacy Protection Agency is the only privacy agency in the US, and it’s essentially setting standards that businesses must follow in the rest of the country. California is home to Silicon Valley and has more than 39 million people, which means whatever California does on privacy becomes the default for industry across the US.
Industry is paying close attention to the fledgling agency, which is only beginning to enact sweeping regulations and pursue enforcement action. Automakers are the subject of the agency’s first probe into connected cars, and several more investigations are underway with undisclosed targets. Mactaggart—first as an advocate and now as a regulator—continues to speak out for action against non-compliant companies.
“Alastair will be in the top tier of Americans that made a significant difference as it relates to privacy,” said Tom Kemp, a Silicon Valley-based angel investor who helped Mactaggart on one of the ballot initiatives. “He deserves a lot of credit in terms of really igniting privacy legislation or regulation in the US.”
Tech lobbyists and business groups are concerned the architect of California’s privacy law has been appointed to the very agency he created. Lobbyists say they fear his presence could translate to a bias against businesses, making compliance difficult.
Mactaggart, 57, and his supporters say those claims are overstated, noting he’s just one of five board members and is following the will of voters who approved the law.
“I’m a person who stays in the middle,” Mactaggart said on his influence in the agency. “I’m not going to buy tech’s argument that there’s really nothing to see here. Again, I’m also not someone who says, ‘We’ve got to go back to the Stone Ages and blow up the internet.’”
“What you could say about me is that at least I’m not in tech’s pocket,” he added in an interview.
It Started at a Dinner Party
As Mactaggart recounts, he was at a dinner party with a Google engineer when he learned, to his horror, how much data that tech companies collect on people. Mactaggart decided to do something about it.
He and his wife, Celine Mactaggart, co-founded Californians for Consumer Privacy, which attempted two ballot efforts in 2018 and 2020 that ultimately ushered in the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act, respectively.
Mactaggart spent about $9 million on the ballot measure attempts, according to state campaign finance records. He made his money as a real estate developer. For more than two decades, Mactaggart worked at Emerald Fund, one of San Francisco’s leading real estate developers.
Mactaggart graduated from Harvard Business School and had no privacy background before he founded Californians for Consumer Privacy, which he still oversees. His passion for privacy came from a desire to do good, he said, adding that uncontrolled use of data by companies ultimately would hurt democracy.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d get some credit,” he said. “I kept on expecting that there would be a real reason why no one had done this before. And so I kept on opening doors, and one thing led to another.”
Mactaggart’s critics point to the fact he has no formal privacy expertise as he continues to play a role in shaping California’s privacy landscape.
Mactaggart countered: “Honestly, I think I know a lot about privacy. If I’m not a privacy expert in this country, who is?”
Alastair MacTaggart testifies during a 2019 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images
‘Concerned About the Level of Impartiality’
When state Attorney General Rob Bonta appointed Mactaggart to the board of the California Privacy Protection Agency a year ago, some observers raised eyebrows.
“I think our members, our organization was concerned about the level of impartiality considering he’s the author of the CPRA, was very instrumental in passing the CCPA. How much impartiality [is there] when somebody’s so close to the issue?” said Dylan Hoffman, executive director for California and the Southwest for TechNet, a trade group that includes
The State Privacy and Security Coalition, a multi-industry group representing Google,
Bonta’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment. Mactaggart said Bonta’s office reached out first to see if he was interested, and he never met Bonta before the day of the appointment in October 2022. It’s not a quid pro quo either. Mactaggart has spent at least $171,000 supporting candidates in state races, but he has not donated to Bonta.
John Pelissero, who studies government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said the appointment likely is legal and not a direct conflict of interest. But he said it would be “prudent” for Mactaggart to remove himself from his organization, Californians for Consumer Privacy, to avoid a perception of bias.
Mactaggart has refused to do so, waving off the idea that someone must give up their personal right to express opinions when serving the public.
“The reality is, I don’t make any money from this. Never have, not a dollar. I’m not like a tech employee or investor or anything like that,” he said. “All the attorney general did was appoint someone who he thought would be a good appointee who is going to probably have an interest of the actual law.”
Mactaggart’s supporters say it’s the tech industry that has a financial interest in the board’s members and the rules that are enacted.
“Someone is putting up some chicken wire to protect some of the hens, and the foxes don’t like it,” said Kemp, the investor who supported the ballot initiatives.
Issues to Watch
In the years to come, the California Privacy Protection Agency will start to regulate automation, risk assessments, and other areas that aren’t outlined in the privacy law, unlike the first set of regulations the agency has already enacted. Those topics are much more open to the agency’s discretion, and industry lobbyists are watching how Mactaggart will influence the conversation.
While businesses fear he could push for too much regulation, some privacy advocates think it’s the opposite. Mary Stone Ross, an advocate who worked with Mactaggart during the first initiative but opposed him in the second, said advocacy groups didn’t always agree with Mactaggart when he was drafting the privacy law, particularly about concessions he made to industry.
For example, some have been dismayed that a private right of action under state privacy law was limited to only data breaches, or that the law went with an opt-out model instead of requiring consumers to opt into sharing their data as the default.
“I don’t think he’s going to dismiss concerns from the business community. I think his sympathies will be more towards that,” she said. “That’s based on his track record.”
Ross agreed with business groups that he is someone to pay attention to as the agency grows in its power and responsibilities.
“He definitely will have the lion’s share of influence,” Ross said. “He’s the guy in the room. He has history no one else has as the co-architect of the CCPA and the architect of the CPRA.”
Mactaggart said he’s just one person on a five-member board, and he will do what’s best for the agency.
“Let me be clear, this agency is pro-privacy. It’s called the California Privacy Protection Agency,” he said. “And if these guys wanted something that was not going to protect privacy, well, guess what? It’s not a free lunch anymore.”
