I asked 100 companies for my data. Some deleted it instead.

I requested personal data from more than 100 companies, including McDonald’s, and received a 515-page report detailing my app interactions and predicting continued patronage. The California Consumer Privacy Act, effective 2020, grants consumers the right to opt out of data sales, delete personal information, and obtain copies of their data. The author’s experience illustrates how the CCPA enables individuals to audit the breadth of data companies hold.