Most California Data Brokers Saw Few Privacy Opt-Out Requests

California’s privacy watchdog is setting up shop at farmer markets, food fairs, and pride celebrations statewide with a wake-up call to attendees: Don’t ignore your privacy rights.

CalPrivacy’s novel roadshow seeks to inform unaware residents that they are allowed to block hundreds of data brokers in California largely operating in the shadows, holding their geolocation, sexual orientation, and biometric data.

Close to 150 brokers—about a quarter of about 570 or so firms registered with the state’s data broker registry —said in their latest disclosures they didn’t get a single request from Californians to delete their personal information—despite residents being legally allowed to do so under the 2018 state privacy law.

The majority of brokers reported receiving relatively few, if any, requests to stop selling or sharing consumers’ data. Some of those companies, like Babel Street Inc. or Agile Education Marketing LLC, reported collecting precise location details or selling data to law enforcement agencies or federal and state governments. The companies have not responded to requests for comment.

CalPrivacy is working to change that by promoting its Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (known as DROP)— which lets residents request all data brokers registered in the state erase their personal information. Along with community events, the agency is also targeting universities and races, running ads in airports, and displaying brochures in laundromats and convenience stores. Agency staff say they’re also engaging with senior centers and publishing signage in Spanish to expand their reach.

Backed by a nearly $8 million marketing budget, the agency’s public affairs team has thrown a “boulder into the water for advertising, and we’re going to start seeing the waves of that,” CalPrivacy’s executive director Tom Kemp said in an interview.

While some data brokers are skeptical about how much the agency can boost engagement, certain firms are bracing for an initial spike in consumer demands to erase their data following the Aug. 1 deadline for brokers to process data-related requests sent via DROP. But many still have questions about how the platform will work—and how to make sure they’re fully compliant.

“It’s going to be kind of a wait-and-see approach. We know that DROP is going into effect in August and we’re prepared. I think industry is getting prepared for this,” said Jason Bier, general counsel and chief privacy officer at Adstra LLC, a marketing solutions provider registered as a data broker in California.

He added, “Nobody really knows the reality of that: What’s going to transpire when this rolls out?”

Consumer Requests

Though California’s data broker registry was first created in 2020, this year marked the first time that data brokers were required to disclose granular details about the type of data collected and parties to which it was sold.

“Data brokerage is an incredibly opaque industry, these companies are not forthcoming to the public or regulators about their practices,” said Justin Sherman at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy advocacy group. “Most consumers have never heard of many of these companies and there is a real lack of information about the types of data they sell and the customers that are eager to pay them for it.”

In addition to 145 data brokers which told California they didn’t receive any requests to delete personal information, another 130 firms said they received less than 100 deletion requests total. The companies in the registry, which is regularly updated, range from digital advertising firms and location intelligence providers, to people search tools and social media management companies.

A handful of brokers still disclosed receiving millions of requests to destroy individuals’ data or stop selling their personal information to third parties. Cuebiq Group LLC, a location intelligence company, disclosed processing 26 million data deletion requests in 2024—by far the largest number on the list.

The huge number of requests is a result of both advertising opt-out choices to customers and processing opt-out requests from upstream partners, Haydn Sweterlitsch, senior vice president at Cuebiq, said in an email.

“While we are prepared for an influx of initial DROP requests, we have made sure our opt-out process is transparent and available to all consumers who have wanted to exercise that right since 2018,” he said.

“Our records demonstrate we can handle large volumes of requests,” he added. “We do not anticipate the seismic impact that other companies—who have not previously registered as a data broker until now—are likely to experience.”

The 2026 registry lists companies that operated as data brokers in 2025, and includes metrics on consumers’ data requests made in 2024.

Spreading the Word

At least 300,000 Californians have signed up with the platform, according to Kemp.

The agency’s marketing efforts were powered by a one-time allocation of $7.9 million, awarded to a marketing and outreach agency for creative development, research, public outreach, and media buys, according to CalPrivacy. The contract, which supported DROP-related media campaign and the roadshow, among other efforts, expires next month.

CalPrivacy will be relying on state lawmakers to appropriate additional funding for such efforts going forward. But agency staff said its public and external affairs team will continue future outreach and public education efforts related to the deletion platform.

How much the agency will be able to convince consumers to delete their data is uncertain.

“I don’t think over time this is going to be something that really the younger generation picks up and runs with,” Adstra’s Bier said. “I think it’s really a disconnect between what regulators think consumers want and what consumers really want. And I think over time that’ll bear itself out.”