California’s New Data Broker Law: Explained

California has taken the lead this year with enactment of the nation’s most wide-reaching law (S.B. 362) over data brokers, companies that amass and sell personal information collected from the internet, public records, and other troves of information. Such data sets are often sold to other companies to use for advertising, identity verification, or other purposes.

While other states are exploring creation of their own data broker registries, the Golden State is now a step ahead by mandating the creation of a “delete button” where a consumer can ask to erase all of their data from all brokers in one ...