- New California law requires social media companies to make it easy for users to cancel their accounts and remove all data.
- It's the first law of its kind in the country and other states are expected to follow.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom had vetoed a similar measure last year.
Governor Gavin Newsom this week signed a measure that requires social media companies to make canceling an account straightforward and clear – and ensuring that cancellation triggers full deletion of the user’s personal data.
Newsom also signed additional laws to help strengthen California’s landmark privacy protections and ensure that consumers have transparent and fair ways to control their own data.
“It shouldn’t be hard to delete social media accounts, and it shouldn’t be even harder to take back control of personal data. With these bills, social media users can be assured that when they delete their accounts, they do not leave their data behind,” Newsom said in a news release.
“Social media users deserve to have the confidence that they can easily delete their account and when they do that their personal information is deleted too,” said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo (D-Santa Clarita), who sponsored the measure. “I’m grateful that with the signing of AB 656, California is putting consumers first.”
These laws build on the Governor’s prior work to protect consumers and their privacy. That includes last year’s Click to Cancel bill, AB 2863 by Assemblymember Schiavo, that made it easier to cancel subscriptions, and 2023’s SB 362 by Senator Josh Becker, the DELETE Act, which, beginning in August 2026, will allow Californians to delete all of their data held by data brokers through a single interface.
A previous measure gave Californians the right to send opt-out signals, but major browsers have not had to make opt-outs simple to use. The bill signed Wednesday would require them to set up an easy-to-find mechanism that lets Californians opt-out with the push of a button, instead of having to do so repeatedly when visiting individual websites.
It's the first law of its kind in the country. “These signals are going to be available to millions more people and it's going to be much easier for them to opt out,” said Matt Schwartz, a policy analyst at Consumer Reports, in published remarks.
Giving consumers more control of their data
Newsom also signed two additional bills to help consumers maintain better control of their data:
SB 361 by Senator Josh Becker, which strengthens the Data Broker Registration Law by providing consumers with more information about the personal information collected by data brokers and who may have access to consumers’ data.
AB 566 by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, which helps consumers exercise their opt-out rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act by requiring browsers to include a setting to send websites an opt-out preference signal to enable Californians to opt out of third-party sales of their data at one time instead of on each individual website.
Strengthening consumer protection
Other consumer protection bills signed this year include legislation to strengthen the authority of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, thereby helping fill the void left by the Trump administration’s weakening of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; to protect car buyers from being sold unnecessary add-ons; and to ensure state antitrust law can address pricing algorithms, among other laws to keep services and products affordable and fair.
In November 2020, voters approved the California Privacy Rights Act that added new privacy protections to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, and established a new agency, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), to implement and enforce the laws.