DROP: California’s Free Tool to Delete Yourself From Data Brokers — and Why Gun Owners Should Use It

Since August 1, 2026, California's DROP platform forces 500+ registered data brokers to delete your personal information — free, in one request, every 45 days, forever. For gun owners, whose home addresses have a way of ending up in the wrong databases, it's the highest-value hour you'll spend this month.

Updated August 13, 2026. Educational information only — not legal advice. Verify current requirements at the official DROP site before acting.

The short version

California built a single button that makes data brokers forget you. It’s called DROP — the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform — it’s run by the California Privacy Protection Agency, it’s free, and as of August 1, 2026 the roughly 500 data brokers registered in this state are legally required to honor what you submit through it.

Not “asked to.” Required. And not once — every 45 days, indefinitely, until you withdraw the request. One submission, permanent standing order.

Over 300,000 Californians had already registered before the obligation kicked in. If you own firearms in this state, you should be one of them, and this article explains both why and how.

Why this matters more if you’re a gun owner

Data brokers aggregate and sell your home address, phone numbers, relatives, prior addresses, and behavioral inferences — including inferences about what you buy and what you’re interested in. That’s a privacy problem for everyone. For firearms owners it’s a specific, concrete risk:

  • Your home becomes a target list entry. A residence known to contain firearms is a burglary priority. Aggregated broker profiles are exactly how “who owns what, and where do they live” gets assembled by people who aren’t law enforcement.
  • Californians have already been burned. In June 2022, the California DOJ’s own Firearms Dashboard exposed the personal information of concealed carry permit applicants statewide — names, addresses, dates of birth, and more. That was the state’s database, not a broker’s, and it demonstrated how quickly a gun-owner list becomes a public document. Anything you can pull back out of circulation, pull back.
  • Swatting and harassment start with an address. We covered the due-process concerns around expanded removal programs in our AB 1344 article; the practical predicate for most of those scenarios is somebody knowing where you live.
  • Classifieds and private sales. If you buy and sell through forum classifieds, you deal with strangers by design. A thin public data footprint is basic operational hygiene — see our PPT guide for the transaction side of that.

None of this is paranoia. It’s the same logic as a gun safe: reduce the number of people who can trivially find the thing worth protecting.

What DROP actually does

DROP is authorized under California’s Delete Act (Civil Code § 1798.99.80 et seq.). Here’s the mechanism, in plain English:

  1. You register once at consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov and verify you’re a California resident.
  2. CalPrivacy publishes your deletion request to the registry of data brokers.
  3. Every registered broker must check DROP at least once every 45 days, pull the list, and delete the personal information they hold about everyone on it — including inferences they’ve drawn about you.
  4. They must also stop selling or sharing new information about you, direct their service providers and contractors to delete as well, and maintain suppression lists so that if they re-acquire your data, it gets deleted again on the next cycle.

That last part is what makes DROP different from the whack-a-mole of opting out broker by broker: it’s not a one-time scrub, it’s a recurring obligation.

How to register: the practical walkthrough

Budget fifteen minutes. You’ll need a government ID for the identity check.

Step 1 — Go to the official site. consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov. Type it yourself rather than trusting a search ad; “delete my data” is a phrase scammers love. It is free — anyone charging you for DROP registration is running a scam.

Step 2 — Verify California residency. Identity verification runs through the California Identity Gateway using third-party vendors (Login.gov and Socure). This step is why the system can’t be abused to delete someone else’s records.

Step 3 — Decide how much to give it. Here’s the counterintuitive part, and the one that gives privacy-minded people pause: CalPrivacy states plainly that the more personal information you provide, the more likely brokers are to find and delete what they hold on you. Old addresses, former names, alternate emails and phone numbers are all matching keys. Withholding them means brokers may not connect their records to you.

Step 4 — Submit, and leave it. The request stays active indefinitely and applies to every registered broker automatically, including brokers that register later. There’s nothing to renew.

The honest trade-off

You are handing personal details to a state agency in order to get private companies to forget them. For some readers — reasonably, given the 2022 dashboard exposure — that’s a real hesitation. Two things worth weighing: the information you’re providing is information brokers already hold and sell, and DROP’s stated purpose is deletion rather than retention. It’s your call, but make it with clear eyes rather than dismissing the tool.

What DROP does not do

  • It doesn’t cover non-registered entities. DROP reaches brokers registered with California. A company that never registered isn’t reached by it (though failing to register is itself a violation CalPrivacy enforces).
  • It doesn’t erase government records. DROS entries, CCW records, and your COE stay exactly where they are. This is about commercial data brokers, not the DOJ.
  • It doesn’t cover people-search sites you deal with directly, or social media. Those still need individual opt-outs and your own hygiene.
  • It’s California-only. Verified residents only; if you move out of state, the protection doesn’t follow you.
  • Legal exemptions exist. Brokers can decline where a statutory exemption applies, but they must report each denial to CalPrivacy with the citation.

Do this today

Register at consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov. Then do the two things DROP won’t: opt out of the major people-search sites individually, and put a freeze on your credit reports. Fifteen minutes on DROP is the highest-leverage privacy hour available to a Californian right now — and it’s one of the rare cases where a state program hands gun owners a genuine, no-strings win.

Sources: CalPrivacy DROP consumer portal • Privacy Rights Clearinghouse — deletion obligations begin • Alston & Bird — Delete Act obligations • CA DOJ — 2022 Firearms Dashboard Data Exposure

This article is educational content from CAGUNS Resource Hub and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney about your specific situation.