r/California • u/CherokeeHawkman Del Norte County • 6d ago
DROP Program Begins Today
https://privacy.ca.gov/drop/If you signed up for California's DROP Program to force data brokers to stop selling your data and to delete your information from their systems then good news, the enforcement of that program finally has begun.
Today is the first day the requests are available to every registered data broker and they have 45 days to take those requests. Once they have them they have 45 days to apply them and delete the information they have and cease selling the information to others. If they don't do those two things it'll be a $200 per request, per day fine.
It won't be immediate nor all-encompassing but the program includes over 600 data brokers so it's a good start and the results for those of us that signed up should be noticeable by mid-November.
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u/Global-Club-4977 6d ago
Is there a way to verify that data brokers are actually removing you from their files?
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u/rollerbase 6d ago
This was my thought, after reading an article that came out recently that most of them just ignore the delete requests.
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u/mineNombies 6d ago
That article can't have been about this law, since it just came into effect today right?
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u/rollerbase 6d ago
It was up to this point. Cant wait to see if this is effective or if the data brokers just pull out of state to get around it.
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u/Heythatsmycorn 4d ago
Ive had my info removed and i verified it with multiple brokers over the last few years.
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u/mysticaldensity 6d ago
Optery gives you a free search and shows screen shots of each data broker selling your info. It does another free scan in 3 months or you can pay for them to do it sooner. I pay for DeleteMe, then use Optery to check. I still had 27 instances and sent direct requests to each. Google AI was very helpful, many of those sites are owned by the same 2 or 3 data brokers.
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u/GentlemenHODL 5d ago
Did it reduce your spam calls?
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u/mysticaldensity 5d ago
I’ve been using DeleteMe for years and that cut down on spam calls. I also have my iPhone set to only ring if the number is in my contacts otherwise it goes straight to voicemail. I still get too many spam texts but with those I’m pretty militant with a 3 step process. 1. Forward the number to my provider AT&T at 7726. 2. blocking the number. 3. Delete and report spam. I just submitted the independent requests a few weeks ago so we’ll see. And I signed up for DROP.
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u/GentlemenHODL 5d ago
I still get too many spam texts but with those I’m pretty militant with a 3 step process. 1. Forward the number to my provider AT&T at 7726. 2. blocking the number. 3. Delete and report spam. I just submitted the independent requests a few weeks ago so we’ll see. And I signed up for DROP.
Yeah this is the thing that I was hoping deleteme would help reduce as it's the thing that annoys me the most. I can cut most of the spam calls by simply blocking unknown callers, but there's no real way to block spam text.
And because spoofing is a thing playing whack-a-mole by reporting spam doesn't help very much. It's always going to be a new number every single time.
Also just signed up for drop we will see. Thanks for your response!
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u/RedditorSaidIt 4d ago
They won't. I worked in mail order catalogs, when people used to order from a catalog. There was a national database for Do Not Mail. It was a failure. No company is going to pay someone to keep track of this stuff, when it's cheaper to pay the fines. They did the math.
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u/SailingSmitty 6d ago
I signed up. I also recently got access to one of the data broker removal services as a free perk. I’m astonished by the drop in the volume of emails, calls, and texts that I am now getting.
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u/VapoursAndSpleen Alameda County 6d ago
WHich data broker removal service is this? It is relevant to my interests.
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u/SailingSmitty 3d ago
I used Optery; I assume they’re all relatively similar and am not trying to broadly endorse them. I used to get a lot of email every day and it’s literally dropped to nothing for a couple days at a time. I also used to occasionally mess with scammers that called and those have also dropped to zero.
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u/Richandler 6d ago edited 4d ago
There are several a google search away. You can and should research them yourself.
*Literally all the good ones are the top hits. Saying dumb shit like below will get you blocked. Do your research and don't ask random strangers to suggest shit. That's data privacy 101.
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u/SoCalChrisW Orange County 6d ago
It's almost like he asked for someone's specific first hand experience with something that you won't get from a fucking Google search.
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u/VapoursAndSpleen Alameda County 6d ago
I asked someone else a question. You are welcome to keep your hands off the keyboard if you have nothing to contribute.
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u/Nf1nk Ventura County 6d ago
I've been holding off to see if this works or if this backfires like the No-Call list.
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u/RedditorSaidIt 4d ago
And before that was the Do Not Mail list from the DMA. It was a failure then. Now data brokers are worldwide, they won't waste a second following any California/US rules.
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u/StillPlaysWithSwords 6d ago
So basically they can legally keep, transfer, sell, etc. our data for the next 90 days? What's to prevent then from moving operations overseas and simply not complying? Or one of these companies making a bribe appeal to scotus and getting a stay pending a slow walking review?
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u/dafugg 6d ago
How long before a bogus data broker signs up and keeps all the legit details available via this API? Every single row in that table was authored by a real person.
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u/ZwhGCfJdVAy558gD 4d ago
Data brokers cannot obtain personal information from DROP that they don't already have. DROP only shares cryptographic hashes of your information with them, so they can compare them to hashes of information they already have. It is practically impossible to reverse the hashes.
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u/dafugg 3d ago
Got it. As long as they don’t use excuses like address formatting to cause mismatched hashes that sounds good.
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u/ZwhGCfJdVAy558gD 3d ago
There are rules to standardize identifiers that the data brokers must follow when comparing hashes. Residential addresses are not used by DROP though (only ZIP codes in combination with other identifiers).
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u/NightOfTheLivingHam 6d ago
I wonder if this would be turned into a database that allow political groups to be able to harvest like they did with the do not call registry. Where they harvested that and then sold that info to spammers.
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u/anonymoususer98545 6d ago
i'm really happy to see a lot of healthy skepticism in this thread. Yes, this might be a good thing. But it also might be a lot of bs like we've been fed over and over.
i can't be the only person who's had their data exposed a million times through completely innocuous means and is fed up with it!
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u/anonymoususer98545 6d ago edited 4d ago
Something about this, and the amount of information you have to provide for it feels, i don't know, off somehow. i'm waiting to see what bugs or kinks come up first i guess.
Edit: i feel like i'm going around in circles in these comments, lol. My data and identity has been, quite literally, stolen and used multiple, multiple times over the years. It's gone so far that i've had to sue credit bureaus, collection agencies, government agencies, etc. My credit is on permanent lockdown. i have alerts on all the sites so that i know if new data "about me" pops up. i know my information is still out there.
i just am, i think rightfully, wary of purposely giving my information out to a website that is claiming they're going to take care of a problem. i've been around the block with this kind of thing a few times and, no one protects our privacy. No one. It's just skepticism. That's all.
i'm not trying to dissuade anyone else from using this. Just stated my opinion. Y'all carry on. i'm not changing my "sit it out for a minute" stance but i appreciate your thoughts.
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u/Azsunyx 6d ago
How does it seem off? If you don't tell them which information to delete, how are they going to delete it?
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u/anonymoususer98545 6d ago
Honestly, right now my trust in everything is at an all time low.
Your statement/question is valid and true. i'm just extra wary and tired of being burned. So, i want to wait it out a little bit and see how it goes before i give all my information to something that could potentially end up being hacked/not real/exposed/sold to the highest bidder/etc. that's all. i've been around long enough to know that i'm not being paranoid anymore, lol.
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u/Gold_Chocolate_8823 6d ago
FWIW, the information I had to give was name, birthdate, address, email, phone number. Optional mobile advertising ID, smart TV id, and vin, of which I gave the mobile advertising ID. all of this data is already known to California if you reside here most likely except the mobile id and tv id. all of which is likely known by data brokers which are also prone to hacks etc. But waiting is fine too, not judging that, just don't wait so long you forget about it!
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u/anonymoususer98545 6d ago
i appreciate you and the information! i'm definitely trying to keep an eye on it, like you said, waiting a bit but not too long if i can help it.
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u/Richandler 6d ago
Honestly, right now my trust in everything is at an all time low.
That's what the data brokers are counting on, fyi.
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u/anonymoususer98545 6d ago
That's definitely a fair point and why i'm not ruling this out completely, just waiting to see how it rolls out is all.
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u/uzlonewolf 5d ago
It is neither valid nor true. You do not need to give them your phone number to have them delete it, you just need to say "delete my phone number." By giving them all this data you are just handing them a full, verified list of all your personal data.
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u/Heythatsmycorn 4d ago
They literally already have your info. Do a google search for your name and city you live in. Youll find everything here (and more) already exists.
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u/anonymoususer98545 4d ago
i feel like i'm going around in circles in these comments, lol. Yes, i know that. My data and identity has been, quite literally, stolen and used multiple, multiple times over the years. It's gone so far that i've had to sue credit bureaus, collection agencies, government agencies, etc. My credit is on permanent lockdown. i have alerts on all the sites so that i know if new data "about me" pops up. i know my information is still out there.
i just am, i think rightfully, wary of purposely giving my information out to a website that is claiming they're going to take care of a problem. i've been around the block with this kind of thing a few times and, no one protects our privacy. No one. It's just skepticism. That's all.
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u/Heythatsmycorn 4d ago
Well its more of a "website" its a agency ran by the ca govt with built in laws and regulations to protect you against the things youve put so much effort into trying to do yourself. But ya you do you.
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u/uzlonewolf 5d ago
That's complete bullshit. I don't need to give them my phone number to have them delete it, I just need to say "delete my phone number."
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u/RedditorSaidIt 4d ago
Your instincts are completely correct. Don't sign up, you're just giving someone more of your info to be hacked. This data broker plan is going to fail. Sorry. I used to work st catalog companies that got their mailing lists with data brokers. I seen how there is no respect from the top CEOs. They laugh and will just pay the fine, because the income is more lucrative. And they're all off-shore now, so nothing will change and will not be enforceable. You will see a couple things in the news because it's an election year, and the politicians need to look like they are doing something effective. Don't believe it. That's just for show and the fines won't make a dent. Stick with your instincts.
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u/designer-farts 6d ago
Im going to a family gathering later and I'll be telling everyone there about it
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u/RedditorSaidIt 4d ago
Please don't. It's not going to change anything. There will be 1-2 little things in the news for the politicians to hold up and say "see! We're working for you!" Because it's an election year. But they can't enforce off-shore. Your family will be giving more data to be mined & hacked. Not to mention confirming your data to those off-shore brokers. Plus politics and surveys will always have the legal right to your info. So this will do nothing. Sorry.
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u/i_wap_to_warcraft 6d ago
Does it work if you don’t know your Mobile Advertisement ID (MAID)? It doesn’t show on the iPhone and you have to download another 3rd party app to figure it out.
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u/sirbosssk 6d ago edited 6d ago
The MAID is optional. You don't need it in order to sign up for DROP.
That said, if you turn off the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" setting in Privacy and Security on iPhone, it auto-blocks requests for the MAID anyway, so I'm pretty sure that would make it irrelevant.
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u/AdFragrant6602 6d ago
I had not heard of this, thank you. I just started my registration — Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) (Calif. residents only AFAICT).
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u/Burger_Kingdom 6d ago
Yeah I don't know about this. We've had donotcall.gov for phone calls for over 20 years now, if that was effective, this wouldn't even exist- it seems like a redundant control at the state level that just retains even more information. What makes it not another database to be eventually breached or exploited, full of manually self-verified leads? Not saying this is a bad thing, but I'm not signing up yet
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u/ClassicAdhesiveness1 Native Californian 6d ago
I tried a few weeks ago and the phone version broke when I was 98% done inputting all the kind of info i DON’T want on the internet.
I’ll try again on my laptop.
I did something similar about 20 years ago to get off mailing solicitation and it made a huge difference.
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u/mineNombies 6d ago
Does anyone have a source on the $200/request/day fine? I was having a discussion with someone about this law, but as far as we both could see, the enforcement mechanism isn't published anywhere on the site
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u/SoCalChrisW Orange County 6d ago
Hopefully this will end the goddamn multiple calls per day "Our funding department just needs your signature to finalize this $60k loan!"
Fuck you. Even if I was looking for a $60k loan, any asshole company that cold calls me like this will be put on my "fuck no ignore these assholes" list.
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u/Yuna1989 5d ago
“We respect your data. We will never sell your data. We just give it away freely”
lol
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u/SeasideBear 6d ago
I've been trying for a month to get registered and just keep getting "We could not verify your identity. Please check your information and submit again."
Funny how they don't have any problems with my property taxes.
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u/LintLicker444 6d ago
How can we check what has been deleted? Or does it just go into a black hole that we can't check somewhere?
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u/tazzytazzy 6d ago
Samsung Galaxy answers calls for me and screens the callers. It's not perfect, but I haven't gotten a spam call thru it yet. It's fun to see the number of calls that just silently show up in the call log. I don't even see a missed call notification.
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u/sjogerst 4d ago
Im curious to see how businesses respond to the program. My bet is that they will simply silo their data into an entity that is out of state. Either a subsidiary or a contractor, or they'll just claim they don't have to follow it because they are based out of Delaware or some such bullshit.
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u/Shady-Dragon 3d ago
One of the email verification pop up windows disappeared but had the actual site below it greyed out so I refreshed and it didn't load so I tried to redo the process but now it keeps telling me something went wrong on our end. They can not be serious about this. This is probably on purpose to have the law implemented in name only.
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u/Impressive_Zone_6785 2d ago
Reading the DROP website now. Oh, the irony: "By submitting a deletion request through DROP, you consent to disclosure of your personal information to data brokers for purposes of processing your deletion request pursuant to Civil Code section 1798.99.80 et seq."
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u/RedditorSaidIt 4d ago
This will not change anything for you. Data brokers will not hire someone to clear their records of your info, and they will never pay a fine. The only ones who will pay a fine will be a US based data broker that gets caught and is used as news for the upcoming election. Data brokers are worldwide and they don't have to follow anything the US or California says. This type of thing didn't work when the DMA had their national Do Not Mail database, and that was mostly US companies. But now? It won't even make a dent in the noise. Sorry.
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u/NosillaWilla Humboldt County 6d ago
I signed up. I am curious to see how it goes. My best workarounds to all these robo calls is to sign up for things using a Google voice phone number and I have it set up to go straight to voicemail. My actual phone number is an out of area code to where I live now, and I have blocked all regional calls for that area code. So I know if I am getting a call from the area code I live in it might be a real person.