You get a spam call. The voice knows your name, your ZIP code, maybe even that you recently shopped for running shoes. That creepy specificity isn’t magic — it’s commerce. Hundreds of companies you’ve never heard of buy, bundle, and resell your personal information like baseball cards. The Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, or DROP, lets California residents fire off one request that tells every registered data broker in the state to delete their profile and stop selling their data. No lawyer required. No navigating hundreds of different corporate opt-out pages.
What These Companies Actually Know About You
Data brokers compile far more than your contact details — and the consequences reach well beyond annoying ads.
The profiles data brokers build go far beyond your email address. They compile:
- Location patterns
- Purchasing history
- Political leanings
- Income estimates
- Health conditions
CPPA enforcement chief Michael Macko told the LA Times that reselling lists of people with diseases like Alzheimer’s is “a recipe for trouble” — and that trouble extends well past annoying ads into scam targeting and warrantless surveillance by law enforcement agencies buying commercial data feeds.
As of January 1, 2026, over 600 registered brokers must check DROP every 45 days and delete flagged profiles within 90 days of retrieval, with full processing obligations active by August 1, 2026. Non-compliance carries real consequences: Datamasters and S&P Global have already faced fines under early Delete Act enforcement.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Hayley Tsukayama calls the Delete Act “a win for consumers,” according to the LA Times. But honesty demands a caveat: DROP is still opt-out. Unlike Europe or the UK, where companies need permission before collecting your data, California still puts the burden on you. DROP’s real innovation is collapsing that burden — hundreds of individual opt-out forms — into a single request.
How to Actually Use DROP Right Now
The process takes minutes, and the confirmation screenshot you save today could matter months from now.
- Head to privacy.ca.gov/drop — it’s free, government-run, and you shouldn’t pay third parties to submit requests on your behalf.
- Verify your California residency using personal information or a Login.gov account.
- Build your profile with as much detail as you’re comfortable providing; more complete data makes it easier for brokers to reliably find and purge your records.
- Submit the deletion request and it fires simultaneously to every active registered broker.
- Screenshot the confirmation page before closing the window — your unique DROP ID arrives after submission. That record is your evidence if a broker ignores the obligation after August 1, 2026, when you can track compliance and file a complaint with the CPPA if needed.
Data and AI expert Chris Mattmann emphasized to the LA Times that personal tactics like VPNs and separate email addresses help at the margins, but regulatory tools like DROP represent the only structural fix for surveillance at scale.
DROP won’t make you invisible. Apps and platforms still collect data directly. But for the shadow economy of companies secretly tracking users and trading your profile without ever meeting you, this is the closest thing to a restraining order California has built yet.
