This week flew by in a whirlwind. I think it’s because in this area, the weather finally relented and provided some warmer days. Our snow is all but gone, the umteen million small children that live on my court (whom I love) have been out every afternoon soaking in the sunshine and giving their parents a break from the relentless indoor time, and the sun is finally setting after 6pm. Plus my husband, because of where he works, received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine this morning! Woot woot! Life is good. The news was busy this week too. I really had to think on which items were most important and worth sharing. I settled on three items that tell the tale of the digital age in which we are currently living.
DIGITAL AD TAX
My home state passed a law that would tax businesses that make money from serving digital ads. I’m sure you can imagine, Facebook and Google are less than pleased. The Chamber of Commerce is also unhappy so they’re suing to block the law from taking effect.
“Maryland’s Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax does what it sounds like: it imposes a tax on the gross revenues companies make from digital advertising inside Maryland. Digital-advertising services, as defined in the bill, include “advertisements in the form of banner advertising, search advertising, interstitial advertising, and other comparable advertising services.” But there’s a catch, businesses that make less than $100 MILLION a year in global ad revenue are exempt from this tax. Seems pretty specific then in who this bill targets, yes? They’re mad and they’re not gonna take it!
CCPA BUT MAKE IT VIRGINIA
Remember that time last week on Homefiniti and Beyond when we talked about other states implementing their own version of the California Consumer Privacy Act? Well Virginia’s ears must have been burning because they passed one last week. This one is called CDPA, which stands for Consumer Data Protection Act.
“CDPA is an opt-in law and uses similar language to GDPR to define consent, which needs to be clear, affirmative, freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous.
This standard is higher than what’s called for under CCPA and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which requires that consumers are given the opportunity to opt out of data collection.
CDPA gives consumers GDPR-like rights.”
If the Governor signs it into law it will take effect on January 1, 2023. Yippee Skippee. {sarcasm font}
ONLINE HOME BUYING
Is it a thing yet? Not really, but it’s certainly way closer to becoming a norm thanks to the pandemic. As we’ve noted when discussing it, most of the use cases come courtesy of a pandemic that really frowns upon travel.
“Sixty-three percent of buyers who used Redfin in November and December went on to make an offer on a home they hadn’t seen in person, and monthly views of 3-D walk-throughs on the site are up more than 500 percent since February 2020.”
Turns out that this crazy market is also a contributing factor. Especially for the millennial market who is so tech savvy. When you’re looking for a home but keep getting outbid or the house sells before you’ve even had a chance to think about it, putting in an offer without stepping foot in a home or a model can sometimes feel like the best way to secure a home.
Tech tools, rules, and taxes were at the forefront of the news this week. 2020 turned the world upside down; 2021 seems to want the world to keep flipping. Hang on tight, I think it’s going to be another wild year.
