Protect Your Privacy with California's DROP Tool

What happened

Are you a California resident? Then we've got exciting news for you: there's a tool just for you that lets you take a single, relatively easy step to protect your privacy. It's called a DROP request. (That's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, if you're fancy).

We advocated for DROP and the Delete Act because it makes our privacy law more user-friendly, which gives us better control over our data and reduces the risks that the uncontrolled collection and sale of personal information creates in our everyday lives. Filing a request benefits you in a few ways.

For one, data brokers are often how spammers (or companies that act like spammers) get your email address, phone number, and other ways of contacting you. Removing yourself from data broker lists could lead to a decrease in these kinds of messages.

Second, reducing the number of companies that have your personal information also improves your personal cybersecurity, as it decreases the number of firms with your information who could be hacked. Third and finally, it gives you an opportunity to exert more control over how your personal information is collected and used—an important element of privacy.

But in summary, a request will often deal with identifying information such as: social security number, precise geolocation, browsing history, email address, and phone numbers. It will also enter a request to delete guesses that data brokers may have made about you based on identifying information, such as political views, inferences about your health—inferences about pregnancy or chronic illness, for example, that may be based on purchases or browsing history.

Not all information will be deleted. Some information, such as vehicle or real estate ownership, contains information that is a matter of public record. If there is a specific data broker you'd like to be able to retain and continue selling your data, the system also gives you a way to remove them from th

Why it matters

This one bit of paperwork lets you tell every data broker registered in the state of California that you'd like them to delete your information from their databases and request they stop selling and sharing your information. Here are some things to know about DROP. (Don’t want all the details and want to just learn how to file a request?

) Filing a request on the DROP will send a request to delete and opt-out of sale to all the data brokers in California's registry. Data brokers are companies that collect information about people, repackage that information, and sell it. As of time of writing, a single DROP request reaches 614 brokers. After August 1, once data brokers receive a request, they will have 45 days to address the request.

DROP officially launched on Jan. 1 of this year, but companies have until Aug. 1 to begin complying with requests. That means if you file a request now, you'll be in on the ground floor. Didn't I hear about this before? If you pay attention to EFF, you sure did. With your help, we advocated for the law creating the DROP tool, the Delete Act.

As we said then, we needed the DROP because Californians have a right to request that companies delete information collected about them, and a right to opt-out of having businesses sell information about them. Yet, in reality, making those requests is an incredibly time-consuming and tedious process. Filing each request is hard.

Plus, because data brokers buy, sell, and exchange information with so many companies (and each other) people may not even know who to file a request with. By linking a request to California's data broker registry, DROP cuts this process down considerably.

What to watch

Unless you opt out, data brokers can sell your private information to predatory companies, scammers, stalkers, insurance companies, and law enforcement. What kinds of information will (and won't) be deleted? The California Privacy Protection Agency, which administers the DROP, has a great resource explaining what data are and are not included in a request.