I Asked 100 Companies for My Data. I Got Deletion Notices Instead
A Wired journalist attempted to exercise their data access rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act by requesting personal information from 100 companies. The process revealed significant friction, with many companies failing to comply or incorrectly processing requests as deletion notices.
Why it matters
It highlights the practical difficulties consumers face in enforcing digital privacy rights despite existing legal frameworks like the CCPA.
I filed a request with McDonald’s earlier this month to access all of the personal data the fast food company collected about me, and I received a stunning 515-page report a few days later that detailed my app interactions in granular detail and predicted I would never stop eating there.
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, I have the legal right to request access to information from large companies that collect personal data. So I was curious what others might have on me, and I spent the next week filing more than 100 requests.
The CCPA went into effect in 2020, and three of its key provisions are the right to opt out of the selling of personal information, the right to delete that info, and the right to request a copy for yourself.
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