Somewhere right now, companies you have never heard of are selling a file on your family. Data brokers assemble it from public records, loyalty programs, app permissions, and each other: names, addresses, phone numbers, home value, approximate income, who lives in your house, plus guesses about your health or politics inferred on top. Nobody asked you.
That file is not a privacy nuisance; it is raw material for the scams a careful family actually worries about. The caller who already “knows things about you,” the SIM-swap crew answering your carrier’s security questions, the pitch aimed at an aging parent: all run better on a rich profile. Shrinking what brokers hold is one of the few moves that cuts your risk across everything at once.
This year, Californians got a genuinely new tool for the job. Everyone else got a preview of where this is heading.
How do you remove your information from data brokers?
There are three routes: file manual opt-outs with the largest brokers one by one, pay a removal service to do it for you, or, if you live in California, file a single free request through the state’s new DROP tool, which reaches every broker registered with the state at once. Whichever route you take, plan to repeat it, because brokers keep collecting.
Opting out of the data brokers has always been the right idea and an impractical chore: hundreds of brokers, each with its own form, its own verification hoops, and a habit of quietly re-listing you months later. Do it yourself and it is a weekend that never ends. Pay a removal service and you are handing over more data to protect your data. California’s new tool aims at that gap.
One note on terms first. In the FIRM System (FIRM stands for Family Information Resource Management, the organizational system at the heart of The Recoverable Family), the SAFE Framework sorts a family’s information into four Areas of Focus: System, At-Home, Financial, and Estate. Cutting your data-broker exposure is a System habit that quietly protects all four.
What the California DROP tool actually is
DROP, the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, is a free service from the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), created by the state’s Delete Act and launched January 1, 2026. You file once, and the request reaches every data broker registered with the state: more than 600 of them, 614 by EFF’s July count.
The most important thing to know: DROP is for California residents only. If your family lives elsewhere, keep reading; the exposure is identical, and there are still moves to make.
Under the CPPA’s schedule, reported by The Markup, brokers began honoring requests on August 1, 2026, and each request is processed within 45 days. The system runs on a rolling cycle: file any time, and re-submit yearly, since brokers keep collecting.
How to use the DROP tool (California residents)
- Go to the official DROP portal: consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov. If you would rather navigate there yourself, start at privacy.ca.gov.
- Verify your identity, through either the California Identity Gateway or Login.gov. Pick one; you cannot switch later.
- Enter your identifiers. Required: name, email, phone, and zip. Optional, but worth it for a thorough sweep: past names, up to three zip codes, extra emails and phone numbers, your vehicle’s VIN, and your devices’ mobile advertising IDs (the hidden number ad-tech uses to track your phone, smart TV, and car).
- Save your DROP ID. The tracking number is how you check status and update the request later.
- Exclude any broker you actually want a relationship with.
- Submit, and set a yearly reminder to re-submit.
What it reaches, and what it doesn’t
| DROP deletes | DROP does not reach |
|---|---|
| Identifying data brokers hold: SSN, geolocation, browsing history, emails, phone numbers | Public records, like property and vehicle ownership |
| Inferences brokers made about you, such as health or political predictions | Companies not registered as data brokers (for example, Google and Meta) |
| Every state-registered broker, in one request | New data collected after your request; it is not permanent |
Because brokers keep collecting, EFF’s advice is to re-submit periodically: treat it like re-freezing a credit report, not a one-time fix.
The honest objection: is this privacy theater?
Not everyone thinks DROP is a win. Writer Cory Doctorow calls it privacy theater: you face heavy identity verification (a Login.gov account, a re-photographed driver’s license, a 32-digit advertising ID dug out of your phone), stronger authentication, he notes, than filing your taxes, while brokers face no comparable burden. The labor runs backwards: brokers should have to prove you opted in, or be banned, not millions of people jumping through hoops to opt out.
He has a point: DROP puts the work on you, and it politely declines a business model many consider indefensible. For a family deciding what to do this week, though, the calculus is simpler. DROP is free, it is the most efficient removal step available, and it costs about an hour. Use it with clear eyes, as the best current tool for shrinking exposure, not a fix that ends the problem.
If your family is not in California
Most readers cannot use DROP. The same file is still out there, and the same reasons to trim it apply.
- Do the high-value manual opt-outs. A few large brokers feed many smaller ones, so removing yourself from the biggest pays outsized returns; EFF’s consumer guides keep current instructions.
- Weigh a removal service carefully. Opting out on your behalf is legitimate and a real time-saver, but the category has mixed track records, and you are sharing data to protect data. Treat it as a spending decision, not a security guarantee.
- Freeze your credit anyway. A broker file makes new-account fraud easier; a credit freeze, free at all three bureaus, blocks the payoff regardless of what brokers hold.
- Watch your own state. California is the front-runner, not the only mover; what is California-only today may reach you soon.
Quick reference
- California resident: file one DROP request at the portal. Save your DROP ID; re-submit yearly.
- Everyone else: the big manual opt-outs, a paid service only as a spending choice, and a credit freeze.
- Everyone: record it in the Family Guide: the removal, the DROP ID or accounts used, the renewal date. Visible to your household, not locked in your head.
The takeaway
You cannot stop being profiled entirely; no single tool will do it. But your data-broker footprint is one of the few privacy variables you actually control, and it sits upstream of the scams families fear most. California just made trimming it a one-hour task, and a clear signal to everyone else. Removal shrinks the file — it does not erase you. File the request if you can, shrink the footprint if you cannot, and write down that you did.
Where does your family stand: Emerging, Developing, or Recoverable? The Self-Assessment tells you in two minutes.