California’s Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) act isn’t the first of its kind –other legislation in various forms have tried to curtail the activities of data brokers in the past few years, like the 2024 CFPB rule that intended to regulate data brokers by having them comply with the Fair Credit Reporting act. However, the DROP act closes a loop that started in 2020 when the state's residents elected to certify the right to stop a company from collecting and selling their data.
The DROP act follows in the footsteps of the 2023 Delete act by granting California residents the ability to request that hundreds of data brokers delete their personal information from their records, in a single query through a state platform. Already in effect as of January 1, 2026 it doesn’t automatically require an immediate deletion but only that the data broker delete the data within 90 days. The brokers also have until August 1 2026 to begin processing requests, and then they're required to delete information "at least once every 45 days."
