California Privacy Protection Agency unveils 'Drop' portal to let residents seek removal of personal data from data brokers

The California Privacy Protection Agency on Monday outlined how Californians can use a new voluntary platform called Drop to request that data brokers remove their personal information.

An agency official said Drop is “a secure, easy-to-use tool” for California residents and that the service will begin processing requests in August 2026. The official said the tool is intended to give residents a straightforward way to ask third-party data brokers to delete or exclude personal records.

Drop requires users to confirm they are California residents. The agency official described two verification options: users can submit identifying details (name, date of birth, address and phone number or email) through the California identity portal — which the agency said is used to confirm residency “without creating an account or storing your personal information” — or they can sign in with an existing login.gov account.

After verifying residency, users create a Drop profile by entering basic personal data such as name, birth date, ZIP code, email and phone number. The presenter said the platform hashes the information — converting it into unreadable codes — before using it to build removal requests. Users may also provide optional identifiers, including vehicle identification numbers or device IDs, to improve the chance that more data brokers can match and remove their records.

Before submission, the agency urged users to check that their entries are correct and complete. The presenter said data brokers process requests sequentially and that a new request can take up to three months to be processed by brokers. After submission, the user receives a Drop ID number to check the status of the request; the official advised users to keep that ID for future reference.

The agency closed by directing listeners to the Drop page on its website for updates and to begin the process (privacy.ca.gov/drop).