California opened a first-of-its-kind government portal on Jan. 1 that lets the state’s 40 million residents demand more than 500 data brokers delete their personal information and prevent future collection.
The Delete Act marks the most aggressive state effort to regulate the largely unregulated data broker industry, which compiles and sells Americans’ personal information including income, addresses, Social Security numbers, medical details, pregnancy status, driving habits, and precise location data from phones.
Data brokers must comply with deletion requests by mid-September or face daily fines for each unfulfilled demand. Companies must also regularly purge new information from individuals who previously requested deletion.
California residents must verify their residency through a digital identification service before submitting basic information including name variations, birth date, email address, and phone number to the state-run portal. The California Privacy Protection Agency offers help resources and dispute resolution for residents encountering verification problems.
Tom Kemp, executive director of the privacy agency, said users should expect reduced visibility on “people search” websites, fewer targeted online ads, and less unsolicited marketing from unfamiliar companies once deletions take effect.
However, the law exempts certain public information including voter registration and property records that have been digitized and compiled online.
“Data brokers enrich a few while exposing everyone else to risk: a nationwide system where anyone can be located, profiled, or targeted with ease,” Shauna Dillavou, CEO of Brightlines, a company that helps individuals remove unwanted online personal information, told the Washington Post.
Previous state attempts to regulate data brokers largely failed because consumers had to file separate opt-out requests with hundreds of individual companies. The 2023 Delete Act amendment to California’s consumer protection laws created the centralized solution.
While other states lack California’s comprehensive broker deletion system, privacy advocates recommend several protective measures for all Americans.
Web browsers from Brave, Firefox, or DuckDuckGo can automatically send legally binding orders telling websites not to share or sell user information in states with applicable laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Privacy Badger software provides similar functionality for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.
Consumer Reports’ Permission Slip app helps users request that companies stop selling their information or delete it where legally permitted. Some features are free, with paid options including data broker deletion services.
The California portal represents years of privacy protection efforts that Kemp said aim to simplify consumer control over personal data. “The way that things are stacked against consumers, privacy is too hard,” Kemp said. “What we’re doing here is trying to make privacy easier.”
