Data Brokers Face New Pressure for Hiding Opt-Out Pages From Google
1 min read
Summary
United States senator Maggie Hassan has written to five data brokers, IQVIA Digital, Comscore, Telesign Corporation, 6sense Insights and Findem, demanding that they justify why their codes on their sites appear designed to impede deletion requests.
The action comes after an investigation by The Markup, CalMatters and WIRED found that at least 35 firms hid opt-out information from search results, making it harder for individuals to control and safeguard their data and protect their online privacy.
California law demands that data brokers provide individuals with a method to delete their personal data, but the investigation found many were hiding such tools from Google and other search results, a “clever work-around” that consumer advocates felt undermined peoples’ privacy rights and which may qualify as an illegal “dark pattern”.
The industry fuels a multibillion-dollar industry trading in personal data often gathered without individuals’ knowledge or consent.
