Every guide here is written against the statute and the state's own published documentation, with the source linked. None of it is legal advice, and none of it is a substitute for reading the law or asking someone who practises it.
GUIDES
Guides to the Delete Act
What the law asks a California data broker to do, in the order you have to do it.
- The California Delete Act
What the California Delete Act requires of registered data brokers: registration, DROP access at least every 45 days, and a filed status for every matched record.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- SB 362: The Delete Act, Read Closely
SB 362, the California Delete Act: the bill's identity, the Civil Code sections it sits in, the DROP mandate, the registration duty, and how it is enforced.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- How To Become A Data Broker
In California you do not apply to become a data broker. You become one by what you do, and then you must register. The definition, the test, and the duties.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- Is DROP At privacy.ca.gov Legit?
DROP at privacy.ca.gov is California's own data deletion platform, run by the California Privacy Protection Agency. How to verify that yourself, and what happens next.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- The DROP 45-day cycle, start to finish
How the 45-day DROP cycle works: when the clock starts, the nine steps of one cycle, what each cycle state means, and what happens when DROP asks you to wait.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- Submitted is not Filed
DROP returns 202 Accepted when your status file is queued for validation. That is Submitted. Filed comes later, by email. Here is why the difference matters.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- How DROP hashing works
The standardization rules, SHA-256 with Base64 output, and the composite hashing DROP requires for NDZ and NameVIN, with the intermediate values written out.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- Deleted or exempted: the broker decides
Status code 3 says you deleted the record. Status code 2 says you did not, and had a reason. The determination belongs to the broker, never to a vendor.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- How To Register As A California Data Broker
The published steps to register as a California data broker: portal account, approval, disclosures, the fee, then selecting deletion lists and issuing an API key.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- Data Broker Registration: The 2027 Checklist
What to gather before the January 31, 2027 California data broker registration: entity details, disclosure answers, list types, and what to record afterwards.
UPDATED 2026-08-25
- CPPA enforcement actions against data brokers
Published CPPA enforcement actions against data brokers for failure to register, the amounts ordered, and how the daily penalty arithmetic works.
UPDATED 2026-08-25