Congress gives you a delete button for your data across all brokers

What it does

This bill creates a federal system allowing people to request deletion of their personal information from all registered data brokers in one place, rather than contacting each broker individually. Data brokers must register with the FTC, disclose what data they collect, and comply with deletion requests within 31 days using a hashed-registry system that protects privacy during the matching process. The FTC enforces compliance through its existing authority, and data brokers pay an annual fee (capped at 1% of system operating costs) to access the deletion registry.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a centralized deletion system that empowers individuals to request removal of personal data from all data brokers simultaneously. This is a direct consumer-protection measure, not a deregulation, subsidy, or narrow carve-out.

What the text implies

• The hashed-registry system allows data brokers to query whether a persistent identifier is subject to a deletion request before collecting new data, creating a de facto opt-out mechanism that may reduce data collection incentives industry-wide.
• The bill's preemption clause allows states to impose greater privacy protections, potentially creating a patchwork of state-level deletion systems that data brokers must coordinate with—implementation complexity not fully addressed in the text.
• Annual audit requirements and affirmative deletion reporting create a compliance audit trail; non-compliance becomes discoverable and enforceable, raising litigation risk for data brokers.
• The definition of 'personal information' is extremely broad (including inferences and device identifiers) and delegated to FTC rulemaking, meaning the scope of deletable data may expand post-enactment without further legislation.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Ordinary people gain a concrete right to delete their personal information across all data brokers through a single, free request—a significant privacy protection that was previously unavailable. The centralized system reduces friction and ensures compliance through FTC enforcement, though the bill permits limited exceptions (legal holds, human subjects research) that are narrowly tailored and subject to use restrictions.

Named in the bill

Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Data brokers (industry category), State privacy regulators, Telecommunications carriers (directory assistance exemption)

Where it stands

3 cosponsors: 3 Democrats.

• Apr 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Apr 3, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,045,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 13 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.

Bill Cassidy, the sponsor, reported $1,329,254 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Experian North America — $845,000 on 2 filings
• Transamerica Companies — $200,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.