Commercial Purpose

Under CCPA, the use of personal information to advance a business's commercial or economic interests, as distinguished from use strictly for business purposes or at the direction of service providers. Commercial purposes include activities like marketing, advertising, facilitating transactions, and improving products or services to increase sales or engagement. The distinction between commercial purposes and business purposes matters because sharing data for commercial purposes may constitute 'sale' under CCPA if it involves exchange of value, while sharing for business purposes with service providers doesn't trigger sale disclosure or opt-out obligations. Organizations must carefully categorize their data uses and appropriately disclose commercial purposes to consumers. The broader the commercial purpose claimed, the more scrutiny it may receive—overly expansive purpose descriptions can appear misleading if actual uses are narrower or different from stated purposes.