California's Delete Act, and what it can't reach

California built something genuinely new. The Delete Act created DROP — the Deletion Request and Opt-Out Platform — where a resident files one request, once, for free, and every data broker registered with the state has to honour it. No per-broker forms. No arguing with thirteen websites that share one login page. One filing.

It went live on 1 January 2026. But the obligation that gives it teeth starts on 1 August 2026: from that date, registered brokers must check DROP at least every 45 days, process the deletion requests they find within 45 days, and keep deleting newly collected data about those people on the same cycle. A request that cannot be verified has to be treated as an opt-out from the sale and sharing of your data instead. Brokers also have to direct their own service providers and contractors to delete.

That last part matters more than it sounds. A one-off deletion is close to worthless against an industry that rebuilds its files continuously from public records. The recurring obligation is what makes DROP different from writing to a broker and hoping.

You have to file it yourself

This is the part most explanations skip, and it is the first thing worth knowing: no one can file DROP on your behalf. Not a service, not a lawyer, not us. California verifies your identity directly through the state's own identity gateway before it will accept a request, and that verification is something only you can complete.

Authorized-agent procedures may exist eventually. They do not today, and every company telling you otherwise is describing something it cannot do. What a service can honestly offer is to walk you through it and track the deadline afterwards — which is worth something, because 45 days is long enough to forget you filed.

What DROP does not cover

Two limits, both structural rather than temporary.

• It is California-only. DROP is a right attached to California residency. If you live anywhere else, none of this is available to you, and the per-broker opt-out remains the only route.
• It reaches registered brokers only. The obligation binds businesses that have registered with the California Privacy Protection Agency as data brokers. A site that has not registered — because it disputes the definition, because it is small, because nobody has made it — is outside the system entirely. DROP has no way to reach it, and neither does anything built on top of DROP.

Neither of those is a criticism of the law. A registry-based remedy can only ever reach the registry. It does mean that a Californian who files DROP and stops there has covered a large, well-defined slice of the problem and left the rest untouched.

Deletion, suppression, and the word in between

Three different things get called the same thing, and the difference decides what you actually end up with.

• Deletion means the broker removes your records. That is what DROP compels.
• Opt-out, or suppression, means the broker stops selling and sharing your data but may keep it. This is what most per-broker forms give you, and what an unverified DROP request converts into.
• Delisting means your profile stops appearing on a public search page. Your file may be untouched behind it.

A service that says it 'removes you' without saying which of the three it means is being imprecise about the only part that matters. Ask. The honest answer is usually a mix, varying by broker, because it depends on what each broker's own process actually offers.

What to do about it

If you live in California: file DROP. It is free, it is one form, and from August it carries a real recurring obligation behind it. There is no argument for not doing it.

Then decide whether the gap matters to you. Unregistered brokers, and the question of whether anything actually happened, are both outside what DROP will tell you — the platform does not hand you evidence you can show someone. If your reason for doing this is a specific person rather than a general unease, that gap is the part worth closing.

We cannot file DROP for you, and neither can anyone else. If you are in California, file it yourself — it costs nothing and covers ground no private service can.