We caught companies making it harder to delete your personal data online
11 days ago
- #Data Privacy
- #California Law
- #Consumer Rights
- The Markup, now part of CalMatters, uses investigative reporting and data analysis to challenge technology for public good.
- California law requires data brokers to provide ways for consumers to delete their data, but many hide deletion instructions from search engines.
- 35 out of 499 registered data brokers used code to exclude deletion pages from search results, making it hard for consumers to find them.
- After being contacted, 10 companies removed the exclusion code, while 24 did not respond, though three later removed the code.
- Some companies hid privacy instructions behind small links on their homepages, requiring extensive navigation to access.
- The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulates data brokers, but enforcement is challenging when companies obscure consumer rights.
- The Delete Act will introduce a system (DROP) for Californians to send a single request to all data brokers for data deletion.
- Enforcement actions have been taken against companies making it difficult for consumers to opt out of data sharing, with significant fines imposed.