Data broker opt-out requests must be submitted individually to 750+ companies because no federal universal deletion mechanism exists, costing consumers an estimated $21 billion in identity theft losses

U.S. consumers who want to remove their personal data from data brokers must submit individual opt-out requests to each of 750+ registered companies identified across five state registries by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, with many brokers deliberately hiding their opt-out pages using 'no index' code to block search engines from surfacing them. A February 2026 Senate Joint Economic Committee investigation found that companies like Comscore, Telesign, 6sense, and IQVIA had actively obstructed consumer opt-out efforts. Why it matters: consumers cannot practically exercise their right to data deletion, so their personal information remains perpetually available for purchase, so identity thieves and bad actors can acquire names, addresses, SSNs, and financial data for as little as $0.12 per record, so identity theft from data broker breaches costs consumers an estimated $21 billion annually, so millions of Americans suffer financial ruin, credit damage, and years of recovery from crimes that a universal deletion mechanism could have prevented. The structural root cause is that the United States lacks a comprehensive federal privacy law mandating a single opt-out portal, leaving data brokers free to set their own opaque and deliberately burdensome removal processes. California's DELETE Act (SB 362) created the DROP platform effective January 1, 2026, but it only covers California residents and California-registered brokers, leaving the vast majority of Americans without recourse.