Can California DROP reduce junk mail?

Use DROP for the records it covers

1. Check eligibility on the official California DROP website. This service is for California residents; a mailing preference with a national retailer is a separate task.
2. Follow the official profile and submission steps privately. Keep your DROP ID somewhere you can retrieve it, and do not include it in a message to an advertiser.
3. Save the confirmation and check status through the official service. Processing began in August 2026, and the published process allows time for brokers to report results.
4. For any paper advertisement that continues, identify the sender and its relationship with you. Decide whether a direct postal preference request addresses that particular mailing.

Keep three kinds of records separate

A broker profile, a store’s own customer record and a public property record can all contain an address. DROP describes exceptions for first-party information, exempt data and publicly available information. It cannot be treated as proof that every advertiser has removed your address.

Use a small private inventory to distinguish what you have actually done. A completed DROP request and a request to a furniture store are different entries. The store’s response can explain its own action without revealing anything about the status of a broker’s records.

Check the response before adding more requests

Review the status definitions on the official DROP site when a broker responds. Keep contacting identified postal advertisers when you want their mail to stop. A piece of mail by itself does not show whether a broker ignored a request or whether the sender used a record outside that request’s scope.

Official sources

• CalPrivacy: How DROP Works
• FTC: How To Stop Junk Mail