California Enacts First-of-its-Kind Bill Targeting Data Brokers

California lawmakers enacted unprecedented legislation late Wednesday allowing state residents to compel data brokers to delete their personal information with the push of a button. Privacy advocates have closely watched the legislation — called the DELETE Act — and consider the first-of-its-kind bill to be significant. They say it could give momentum to the passage of similar laws in other states. The new rules passed despite fierce lobbying from the data broker and advertising industries. Under the law, California residents will be able to visit a single website to request that the 500-plus registered data brokers in the state remove their personal information from vast databases and continue to delete those residents’ data every 45 days moving forward. The California Privacy Protection Agency will be charged with establishing the website where residents can quickly and easily force companies to delete their data instead of having to contact every website they have ever visited in addition to the state’s registered data brokers, according to Matt Schwartz, a policy analyst at Consumer Reports.