California can now make 600 data brokers erase you - in one free request

Here's a rare piece of genuinely good privacy news. As of August 1, 2026, California's Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform - DROP for short - finally has teeth. A resident can file one request through the state's free portal and force every registered data broker to delete the personal information it's holding on them. There are more than 600 brokers in California's registry; until now you'd have had to hunt down and pester each one on its own.

The steps are straightforward. You make an account on the California Privacy Protection Agency's site, verify yourself with an email or phone number, and add whatever identifying details you're comfortable sharing so brokers can match their files to you. DROP gives you a tracking ID to follow the request. Brokers now have to check the platform regularly and delete matching records within 90 days, or risk fines of $200 per request, for every day they drag their feet.

The honest catch is that this only works if you live in California - it's the first tool of its kind in the country. Oregon, Texas and Vermont keep broker registries but offer no one-click deletion, so people there (and everywhere else) still have to opt out the slow way: each big broker has its own removal page, and it's worth keeping a list as you go. Tedious, but not pointless - these are the very lists that feed robocalls, junk mail and the "there's money waiting in your name" scams we keep writing about.

Trimming your data-broker footprint handles the marketing side of your privacy; the security side is knowing which of your logins have actually leaked. Tendvane's Privacy & accounts check tells you which of your email addresses and passwords have turned up in known breaches, so you know exactly where to change a password or switch on two-factor.