Sacramento, CA – Consumer Reports issued the following statement in response to the announcement earlier today that the California Attorney General, in partnership with the California Privacy Protection Agency and the attorneys general of Colorado and Connecticut, are investigating potential noncompliance with the Global Privacy Control (GPC), a user-friendly browser setting or extension that automatically alerts businesses of a consumer’s request to stop selling or sharing their personal information with third parties.
“We are pleased to see that privacy regulators from California, Colorado, and Connecticut are coming together to launch an investigation into the potential noncompliance of businesses with the GPC,” said Matt Schwartz, policy analyst at Consumer Reports. “Ensuring that businesses are honoring universal opt-outs is central to effective privacy oversight. Without universal-opt outs, it is extremely difficult for consumers to take advantage of their rights in practice, so it is critical that businesses comply with these provisions.”
Earlier this year, CR and researchers from Wesleyan University released findings from a joint study that examines how companies are complying with opt-out requests sent by universal opt-out mechanisms, such as GPC. The study examined 40 online retailers and found that several of them appear to be ignoring opt-out requests under state privacy laws.
Since the passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act in 2018, the number of comprehensive state privacy laws has grown to 19, covering approximately 44% of the U.S. population.
Consumer Reports is a founding member of GPC and serves as a current editor of the GPC technical specification.
Contact: cyrus.rassool@consumer.org