CCPA Data Broker Email Template

In our most recent post, we shared our experience trying to submit our CCPA data requests to data brokers using Vael as our “authorized agent”. If you didn’t read our last post, this process was a complete nightmare for a multitude of reasons. Although Vael met all of the criteria to operate as a legitimate authorized agent under CCPA and provided data brokers with all of the necessary information needed to verify our (Vael) and the consumer’s (Michael and I’s) identity, most data brokers rejected Vael’s CCPA data requests. In most cases, data brokers used “identity verification” as their reasoning not to process Vael’s CCPA data request, then we’re able to side-step Vael as the authorized agent and communicate directly with the consumer. Thus, placing more burden on the consumer who is merely wanting to exercise their rights. Again, the authorized agent portion of CCPA seems promising on paper, but is not effective in reality.

What is a Data Broker?

The tricky thing with data brokers is that these are companies you have likely never heard of or knowingly come across on the internet. It’s not like you (as a consumer) are ever going out and actively searching for the names of these companies. For a little bit of humor/horror, I have picked a few data broker company names registered with the California Attorney General’s office. Note: these are real names, I could not make this up!

If the above mentioned company names don’t raise some red flags about what information of yours might be out there, then I don’t know what will.

How Can I Exercise My Data Rights with Data Brokers and What Rights Should I Exercise?

When thinking of what requests to submit to data brokers, we highly recommend submitting a request to delete and a request to opt-out (of sale), but this is to your discretion. The request to delete will require data brokers to delete personal information they have about you and the request to opt-out will prevent data brokers from selling your information to third-parties.

Beyond Data Brokers

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