Data brokers have a financial incentive to keep personal data online, and to make it difficult to opt out.
A new joint investigation by The Markup and CalMatters found that more than 30 registered data brokers in California were hiding their data deletion instructions from Google search results.
35 data brokers used code to block indexing of their opt-out pages, making them invisible to Google, Bing, and other search engines.
Some buried links deep in privacy policies or behind multiple pop-ups, while others listed deletion pages in California’s official registry that no longer exist.
An enforcement advisory from the California Privacy Protection Agency says that “user interfaces or choice architectures that have the substantial effect of subverting or impairing a consumer’s autonomy, decision-making, or choice” are “dark patterns,” and “deploying these sorts of user interfaces is a privacy-averse practice.”
While some companies claimed the blocking was an oversight, two said they did it intentionally to prevent spam.
The CCPA requires data brokers to offer deletion and opt-out options, but if consumers can’t easily find them, those rights become difficult to exercise. The coming Delete Act will create a one-stop “DROP” system for Californians, to be launched next year, allowing residents to send a single, legally binding request to all data brokers listed in the state’s official data broker registry at once.
With Optery, you don’t have to hunt for hidden forms or navigate deceptive websites. Our data removal requests are fully customized to leverage the rights granted by privacy laws in California and other states, so you can exercise your privacy rights without the frustration, guesswork, or wasted time.
Read the full article here: https://www.wired.com/story/data-brokers-hiding-opt-out-pages-google-search/