HOW THIS WORKS
Methodology & honesty
A directory is only worth trusting if it's honest about what it knows. Here's exactly how OptOut Index is built and where it's still growing.
The data
Every broker listed is a real US data broker, and every opt-out link points to that broker's real, publicly-documented opt-out endpoint. Difficulty (1–5) and time estimates are honest guidance based on the number of steps each removal takes — they're labelled as estimates, never presented as guarantees. The full registry below covers all 549 registered California data brokers; the curated Removal Plan hand-picks 24 highest-impact brokers (15 of them quick wins under ten minutes, 12 minutes average) to work through first.
The full registry
Beyond our hand-picked list, the Full Registry reproduces California's official data broker registry verbatim — all 549 companies that have registered as data brokers under the state's DELETE Act, with their own opt-out and deletion links (337 carry an opt-out link). It's the state's data, dated to when we retrieved it (2026-07-08); we don't add, remove, or guess entries.
Freshness badges
Opt-out pages move and change. The badge system is designed to show each link's health at a glance:
- Verified — automated check confirmed the link works.
- Changed — the opt-out page moved; follow the note.
- Broken — the link is down; we're re-sourcing it.
In this first release, links show a neutral "Listed" state: they are on record and hand-checked, but the weekly automated verifier that flips these badges is part of the next release. We'd rather show you an honest "not auto-checked yet" than a green tick we can't stand behind.
Your privacy
The Removal Plan Builder runs entirely in your browser. The concerns you pick and the boxes you tick are stored only in your own browser's local storage — nothing is sent to us. We use privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics for aggregate traffic counts.
Per-broker removal steps & effort
Every registry page now rebuilds the broker's own registered opt-out and deletion instructions into clear, numbered steps, and shows an effort estimate (very easy → manual). That estimate is derived only from the removal method the broker registered — a one-click web form is easier than an emailed or written request — not an asserted fact about the broker. We never add a link, email, phone number, or step the broker did not register; where a broker registered no direct channel, we say so and point to its privacy notice. Categories are our own browsing grouping, assigned from each broker's name and registered practices — a navigation aid, not an official state classification.
Why we don't show a “link is live” badge
Most broker opt-out URLs block automated checks (they return a bot-block rather than load for a script), so we can't honestly claim a link is currently working. We show each link exactly as registered with the state and tell you to confirm on the broker's own site, rather than display a green badge we can't stand behind.
A second state registry: Vermont
We looked at adding Vermont's data-broker registry as a second source. California publishes a complete registry as a downloadable CSV, which is what powers this site. Vermont, by contrast, offers only a search-only online inquiry portal with no bulk export — there is no honest, keyless way to mirror it, and we don't scrape interactive lookup tools. So for now this directory is California's registry; the opt-out steps themselves work for residents of any state with equivalent rights. We'll add Vermont if it ever publishes a bulk file.
What's coming
An automated link verifier and translated guides remain on the roadmap. This page will say so plainly until they ship.