Hello there,

Our names are Colin and Mohamed, and we’re both journalists at CalMatters and The Markup.

If you haven’t heard yet, California is offering a new way for people to protect their data — and we want your help tracking its rollout and effectiveness.

Data brokers are largely unknown companies that make a business out of collecting often-sensitive data on consumers. That data can include where you and your family are at all times, what you buy, what medications you’re taking and much more.

Starting at the beginning of this year, the California Privacy Protection Agency allowed residents of the state to sign up for the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, or DROP. The tool lets consumers send an instant request to hundreds of data brokers, asking them to delete their data and stop tracking them. 

The brokers are required to start processing those requests in August. We reported on the tool’s launch, and as new requests are processed, we’ll keep following the story. 

CalMatters and The Markup want to keep tabs on whether data companies comply with DROP, and that’s where we need your help. 

Californians have the right to know about the personal information a business collects about them and to control how it is used and shared. We’ll walk you through how to exercise those rights with some of the largest data brokers in the country and how to share what they tell you with us. Then, after the DROP deadline, we’ll walk you through how to do it again, and we’ll help you figure out if the information companies have about you changed, grew, or was deleted.

If you live in California, get started by following the steps in this article.

If you don’t live in California, but have friends or family in California who would be interested in helping us investigate, please share this article with them.

We appreciate the help!

Colin and Mohamed