SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — If you want to protect your personal information and avoid scams, a new California law can help.
The Delete Act requires data brokers to delete the information they collect about you — like your email address and phone number — through a single online request.
Tom Kemp, the executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, explained how data brokers gather that information in the first place.
"They collate information from publicly available information like voter registration information, property records. They also have hooks into a lot of free mobile applications. So that's how these free apps monetize. They also integrate with websites and put trackers, what we call third party cookies that collect information about what websites we visit. They also purchase data from other data brokers as well," Kemp said.
To participate, go to privacy.ca.gov and click on "DROP" — the Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform. There, you verify you are a California resident and enter some basic information.
Starting Aug. 1, registered data brokers are required to connect to the DROP program, check whether your data is in their systems, and begin deleting it if it is.
More than 330,000 Californians have already signed up.
ABC 10News anchor Melissa Mecija asked Kemp how they ensure Californians' information is safe on the CalPrivacy website.
Kemp responded that the information is encrypted. "I don't even know if you've actually signed up, and I run the agency itself, so the information is immediately stored in a secure manner," he said.
Kemp said the system has real teeth when it comes to enforcement — unlike the federal Do Not Call Registry.
"What has been built into this system is some serious enforcement penalties and fines, and my agency, the California Privacy Protection Agency, has a whole team set up to go after data brokers that don't properly process the deletions, and the fines are huge. The fines are $200 per day per incident," Kemp said.
Kemp acknowledges there are unregistered companies, but the agency is trying to go after them. "We fined dozens of companies for failure to register even before the deletion has begun," he said.
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