Data Brokers Are Playing Hide-and-Seek With Your Privacy. You're 'It'.
I have a theory that data brokers see the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) not as a regulation, but as a creative writing prompt. The challenge: “How can we technically comply with the law while making it so absurdly difficult to use that nobody bothers?”
It turns out they’re taking that challenge very seriously.
A recent investigation by The Markup and CalMatters dropped a bombshell that surprised absolutely no one who’s been paying attention: over 30 data brokers were caught deliberately hiding their opt-out pages from Google. They used a simple piece of code to tell search engines, “Hey, nothing to see here,” effectively burying the one tool regulators gave us to fight back.
Let’s call this what it is: malicious compliance. It’s the corporate equivalent of a child “cleaning their room” by shoving everything under the bed. They get to check a box that says “Yes, we have an opt-out page,” while knowing full well that finding it requires the determination of a treasure hunter with a cursed map.
Some of the companies, when caught, gave the classic “oops, our bad” excuse. Right. A “mistake.” Others admitted they did it on purpose to “prevent spam,” which is the most laughable excuse I’ve heard all week. They’re not worried about spam; they’re worried about you, the product, suddenly deciding you don’t want to be sold anymore.
The whole system is a joke. We never “opted in” to have our data scraped, packaged, and sold to the highest bidder. Yet the burden is on us to navigate a maze of dark patterns and hidden links to beg for a sliver of privacy back.
California’s upcoming “Delete Act” aims to fix this with a centralized system. And look, I’m glad it’s happening. It’s a good step. But forgive me for not throwing a parade. These companies have already shown their hand. They don’t respect the law; they only respect what they’re forced to do. They will poke and prod at any new system, looking for the next loophole, the next “mistake” they can make to keep their shady business model alive.
So, sure, a single button to tell them all to get lost is an improvement. But the game of hide-and-seek isn’t over. They’ll just find a new place to hide.
Source: Data Brokers Are Hiding Their Opt-Out Pages From Google Search
