Imagine making shadowy data brokers erase your personal info. Californians may soon live the dream
California, which already has some of the strongest digital privacy laws in the U.S., is on the verge of handing consumers a major new tool to combat the sale and secret use of personal information they may never have agreed to share
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — You may not know it, but thousands of often shadowy companies routinely traffic in personal data you probably never agreed to share — everything from your real-time location information to private financial details. Even if you could identify these data brokers, there isn't much you can do about their activities, even in California, which has some of the strongest digital privacy laws in the U.S.
That's on the verge of changing. Both houses of the California state legislature have passed the Delete Act, which would establish a “one stop shop” where individuals could order hundreds of data brokers registered in the state to delete their personal data — and to cease acquiring and selling it in the future — with a single request.
The Delete Act isn't law yet; it still needs to pass a second vote in the state Senate, after which its fate is up to Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who hasn't said whether he'll sign it. But if enacted, its impact could extend well beyond state lines given California's history of setting trends of this sort.
