CPPA Applauds Governor Newsom for Approving the California Delete Act

The California Privacy Protection Agency applauded Governor Gavin Newsom for approving key privacy legislation, including the California Delete Act (SB 362), authored by Senator Josh Becker. SB 362 strengthens California consumers’ privacy protections with respect to data brokers. The CPPA Board voted unanimously to support the bill in July.

The bill, which will go into effect on January 1, 2024, will transfer administration, enforcement, and rulemaking authority over California’s data broker registry from the California Department of Justice to the CPPA. It also directs the Agency to, by January 1, 2026, establish an accessible deletion mechanism to allow a consumer to, in a single request, direct all data brokers to delete their personal information. Additionally, data brokers will be prohibited from selling or sharing the information of a consumer who has previously requested deletion, unless the consumer requests otherwise.

“We applaud Governor Newsom for signing SB 362, the California Delete Act, which the CPPA Board unanimously voted to support in July. SB 362 is consistent with CPPA’s mission to further Californians’ privacy by making it easier for consumers to exercise their rights,” said Ashkan Soltani, Executive Director of the CPPA. “Similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act’s existing requirement for businesses to honor opt-out preference signals, the ‘accessible deletion mechanism’ is another privacy innovation that further cements California’s leadership in technology policy and consumer protection.”

California is the first state to pass a law to create an accessible deletion mechanism for consumers to delete their personal information held by data brokers in a single step. Data brokers are businesses that knowingly collect and sell to third parties the personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship. Like California, several other states, including Vermont, Oregon, and Texas, have passed laws to create data broker registries, in which consumers can view information provided by data brokers registered in the state.

Governor Newsom also signed two additional CPPA-supported bills, AB 947 (Gabriel), which adds citizenship and immigration status to the CCPA’s definition of sensitive personal information, and AB 1194 (Carillo), which strengthens the CCPA’s protections with respect to reproductive privacy. Like SB 362, the bills will go into effect on January 1.

Contact: press@cppa.ca.gov