Companies Making Opt-Out Option Harder

Laws such as GDPR for Europeans, and CCPA for California, have started to a law to let consumers take more control over their data. However, some companies have made it harder for consumers to opt-out their data, though federal US law has not been implemented yet. There has been reports of companies making their opt-out option hidden from search engines [1], some say it is unintentional in their code though there still is a problem with consumers having to scroll across their website to finally opt out [2]. There are also companies who do not respect the consumers' choice to opt-out and still provide targeted ads [3]. As well as other instances which will be mentioned in the examples.

Why it is a problem

Data Rights Being Violated

Consumers' right for their data to be opted out is part of many data protection laws. The instance of companies violating consumers' data would be in direct violation of these rights.

Examples

• Meta requiring consumers' to send an email to opt out of their AI-training data, for them to review the reason 'in accordance to relevant data protection law' [4].
• Google removing the option to opt-out from third-party vendors from buying their ad-slots, reason being it 'no longer provides publishers with useful privacy or brand safety functionality' [5].