Written by Brook Schaaf

California’s Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) kicks in on August 1st. That is, state regulators are looking forward to kicking in the teeth of non-compliant data brokers, according to AdExchanger, which has followed the legislation.

As affiliate marketing’s lawyer, Gary Kibel, noted, “Data brokers will need to access the DROP and process those consumer requests through an automated or manual process every 45 days starting August 1, 2026, or face heavy fines… up to $200 per day per deletion request.” Up to now, California consumers have had to request deletion with individual data brokers, of which there are currently 579, a tedious task for the few who even know how to go about it. 

It seems to me there will be some predictable outcomes and some unknowns. First and foremost, as always, this will further improve the position of the walled gardens in a manner reminiscent of GDPR. They remain a pathway to consumers. One suspects the courts will ultimately refine how “consumers,” “data brokers,” and “direct relationships” are defined.

It was way back in 1999 that Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy got dragged for saying “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it,” in response to concerns for consumer privacy. By comparison to Big Tech today, what was knowable and doable back then feels downright quaint. 

Data is regularly hacked and harvested. To take but a few recent examples of the former, a hotel check-in system exposed “more than 1 million customer passports, driver’s licenses, and selfie verification photos to the open web after a security lapse.” France and Mexico both had major breaches of government-held data earlier this year.

While DROP may account for US-based scofflaws, it can’t do much about outlaws operating outside the jurisdiction of the United States, who remain just an email or server ping away. California’s own longstanding (effective January 1, 2004) anti-spam law will certainly discourage certain uses of this data, but one imagines additional, future language to restrict targeting, etc. Again, this will benefit the walled gardens.

And where does this leave affiliates? It could conceivably be both bad and good, perhaps with an emphasis on the latter. Affiliates’ own marketing to consumers might be somewhat restricted, but they also collectively tap into vast pools of California consumers, so who knows? Perhaps in this context, affiliates will be like their own little gardens, able to charge more to market to Californians.

One also wonders if state residents themselves will ultimately notice any difference. If DROP does prove effective, other states are likely to pass similar legislation. If this does lead to greater centralization of digital advertising power, let’s hope affiliates are counted as insiders.

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