Check what Global Privacy Control covers

Global Privacy Control, or GPC, communicates a choice about the sale or sharing of personal information. It can help California residents exercise that choice when visiting covered businesses online. Before treating it as a completed mail cleanup, check what your browser sends and what the website says it processed.

By Junk Mail Magic. Updated October 2, 2026.

Check the browser and the business

Use your browser or extension's own instructions to find its GPC setting. Record the browser and device you checked, especially if you use several.
Visit the business's official website with that setting enabled. Read its privacy controls for the status of your choice and save the wording and date.
Note whether the site knows you through an existing account or associated profile. Do not assume a setting checked on one device identifies every account you have with the business.
If your concern includes information used outside the browser, ask the privacy contact what information it associates with this choice. Record an unanswered question as unresolved.
Check the sender's postal preference separately if you also want its printed promotions to stop. Save that confirmation under the mail request.

The signal can reach an associated profile

California's current regulation applies a valid signal to the browser or device and associated profiles. If the business knows the consumer, it also applies the choice to that consumer. A business may offer optional information fields to help connect the request with offline data.

That scope concerns sale and sharing. It does not turn the browser into a catalog-removal service or tell you which mailing record produced an envelope. Use the sender's explanation to identify any separate postal step.

GPC scope check

Example for your own use. Replace the bracketed details and review what you share.

Business and website: [name, URL] Browser and device checked: [details] GPC setting: [enabled / unavailable / uncertain] Date checked: [date] Website status wording: [exact wording / none found] Existing account or associated profile: [known / unknown] Question about offline information: [question, or none] Separate printed-mail choice: [requested / confirmed / not requested]

Keep the unanswered question specific

If the site gives no clear status, save what you saw and ask its privacy contact whether the signal was processed. Include the page, date and browser. You do not need to send your browsing history.

Official sources

Submit a California sale or sharing opt-out Check a California opt-out form that asks for ID Use a privacy portal when it offers a mail-only choice Complete a mail preference using a shared computer Privacy and marketing lists All practical mail guides

Choose the route that matches the mailing

Use the official route described in this guide for this kind of mail. For a separate ordinary advertisement, Junk Mail Magic can help prepare a sender-specific removal request.

Compare removal routes