California Has a New Tool to Delete Your Personal Data From 600+ Data Brokers

DROP is a free California state program that lets you make one deletion request to more than 600 registered data brokers.

Instead of visiting hundreds of individual websites and trying to figure out each company's privacy procedure, you submit one request through DROP.

The participating data brokers then use the information you provide to look for matching records and, when required, delete your non-exempt personal information.

You can also tell data brokers not to sell your personal information.

Privacy matters at any age, but there are particular reasons older adults may want to pay attention.

The more personal information that circulates about you, the more opportunities there are for companies, advertisers, marketers — and potentially scammers — to learn about you.

Deleting information from data brokers won't make you invisible on the internet. It won't stop every scam or prevent every company from having information about you.

But reducing the amount of personal information circulating through the data-broker ecosystem is a reasonable privacy and security step.

The process is surprisingly simple.

First, you verify that you are a California resident.

You then create your DROP profile and provide some basic identifying information.

DROP requires your:

• Name
• Date of birth
• ZIP code

You can also provide your email address and phone number.

There are additional optional identifiers that can improve the chances of a data broker matching you correctly, including:

• Mobile advertising ID (MAID)
• Connected TV ID
• Vehicle identification number (VIN)

You don't have to provide all of them. You can submit your request with the required information and return later to add more.

Once you submit the request, DROP gives you an eight-digit DROP ID.

SAVE THAT NUMBER. You'll need it to check the status of your requests. Don't share it unnecessarily.

This is an important question.

California says the information you provide to DROP is used to complete your deletion request and isn't sold or shared for another reason.

The system also hashes the information you enter. That means your raw identifying information isn't simply handed to data brokers for their matching process.

Starting August 1, 2026, data brokers are required to access DROP at least once every 45 days to download and process deletion requests.

They can take up to 90 days to report the status of a request.

And this isn't a one-time cleanup.

After the initial request, data brokers are required to check for new matching information and process deletion requests at least every 45 days.

DROP can report several different results for a data broker:

• Record deleted
• Record exempted
• Record opted out of sale
• Record not found
• Pending

"Record not found" doesn't necessarily mean something went wrong. The broker may simply not have a matching record.

And some information can legally be retained.

This is where expectations matter.

DROP does not erase your personal information from the entire internet.

It doesn't remove information you've given directly to a business. That's called first-party data.

It also doesn't necessarily remove exempt information or publicly available information.

And DROP applies to the data brokers registered with the California system. It isn't a universal delete button for every company that might have information about you.

So think of DROP as reducing one significant source of personal-data circulation — not as making yourself anonymous.

Yes.

DROP allows you to leave specific data brokers out of your deletion request if you want them to retain your information.

That gives you some control over which participating brokers receive the request.

In some circumstances, yes.

California says a person may be able to submit a request on behalf of another California resident, including a family member submitting for an elderly relative.

That's potentially useful if you're helping an older family member who isn't comfortable navigating the process themselves.

There isn't a financial catch — DROP is free.

But there is a privacy trade-off worth understanding.

To ask data brokers to find and delete your information, you have to provide enough information for them to identify you.

California says the information submitted through DROP is used for the deletion process and protected securely.

There's also a practical trade-off: reducing the information available to data brokers may mean less personalized advertising or other personalization.

For most people, that is probably not much of a sacrifice.

DROP isn't a magic eraser.

It won't remove everything about you from the digital world, and some information is legally exempt.

But consider the alternative: individually hunting down hundreds of data brokers, figuring out who has your information, finding each company's privacy process, and repeating the exercise.

California has essentially created a single front door for this process.

For California residents, that makes DROP a useful privacy tool — particularly because it is free and covers more than 600 registered data brokers.

If you use it, use the official California site, provide enough information to improve matching, save your eight-digit DROP ID, and don't expect the process to happen overnight.

If you're a California resident, DROP is worth knowing about.

For the first time, you can make one request aimed at more than 600 data brokers instead of chasing them one by one.

It won't make you invisible. It won't erase every piece of personal information about you.

But privacy is hard to get back once you've given it away.

DROP gives Californians a chance to take some of it back.