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.

The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.

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.