Mail guides
Privacy and marketing lists
Understand which records a privacy request can change.
Renew an affiliate marketing opt-out when the notice requires it
An affiliate marketing opt-out can have an expiration date. Under the CFPB rule, the covered choice lasts at least five years from receipt and implementation, but the institution may provide a longer or indefinite period. Read your actual notice before deciding renewal is due.
Prepare an authorized-agent privacy request in California
For a California resident using a covered business’s CCPA process, an authorized-agent request needs more than informal help sorting mail. Identify the exact privacy right being exercised, then follow the permission and verification rules for that request. The consumer remains the person whose choice the agent is carrying out.
Prepare a California request to correct an address
A California correction request should identify the information you believe is wrong and explain the correction. Start with the field's purpose: an old address labeled as your current residence is different from an accurate record of a past delivery. An unwanted mailing alone does not settle which information the business holds.
Combine DROP with direct postal preferences
Use DROP and direct requests together, and track them in separate records. DROP sends deletion requests to participating registered data brokers for California residents. A postal preference request goes to the store, charity or other company named on the mailer.
Can California DROP reduce junk mail?
California DROP can reduce the personal information available from covered data brokers. Its effect on your paper mail will depend on where each advertiser gets its mailing records. A store that received your address directly may still need its own postal preference request.
Why can a store still mail you after a DROP request?
DROP sends deletion requests to participating registered data brokers. When a store collects your name and address because you shopped there, that is first-party data. CalPrivacy says first-party data is outside the deletion DROP describes. To reduce that store's catalogs and postcards, ask the store for a postal marketing preference.
Update a DROP profile after contact details change
CalPrivacy says you can edit your DROP request by choosing Check DROP status and opening your profile. Use that route to add a changed name or contact detail. Make changes only in the official service, and keep your DROP ID private.
Understand public records after a DROP request
Home-record information can remain after a DROP request. CalPrivacy says public records are outside the deletion DROP describes, along with first-party data and other exempt information. A county property record, a broker's marketing profile and a store's customer file are three different records, and only the broker profile is the kind of record DROP sends deletion requests about.
Read the status of a California DROP request
DROP reports results separately for each broker. A status describes what happened to that broker's data, not whether every advertiser stopped mailing. CalPrivacy says brokers can take up to 90 days to report processing results. Use the exact status and the date checked when keeping your record.
Check a California opt-out form that asks for ID
If a California sale or sharing opt-out asks for identity documents, first check which request you selected. That choice has different verification rules from a request to obtain, delete or correct personal information. A form containing several options can make it easy to end up in the wrong process.
Prepare evidence for a California privacy complaint
A useful California privacy complaint explains what happened, when it happened and which business was involved. Prepare those facts before opening CalPrivacy's form. Another catalog arriving is an observation to record; by itself, it does not establish a violation of a privacy right.
Track a California privacy request's response dates
Choose the request type before putting a follow-up date on your calendar. California's CCPA uses different periods for an access, deletion or correction request and a sale or sharing opt-out. A message acknowledging receipt also means something different from a response saying what the business did.
Submit a California sale or sharing opt-out
If you are a California resident and want a covered business to stop selling or sharing your personal information, use its designated privacy route to submit that choice. State the right you are exercising. A general message asking for fewer advertisements may leave the company unsure whether you intended a CCPA opt-out.
Request less mail without requesting every customer record
If all you want is fewer printed promotions, ask the company to stop postal marketing and say your account should stay open. Asking to see or delete all of your customer data is a bigger request with different results. Make it only if you want that outcome.
Check a privacy opt-out after closing a financial account
Under the CFPB privacy rule, an opt-out continues after a customer relationship ends for information collected during or related to that relationship. It lasts until revoked through the permitted process. A later new relationship is a separate question: the old election does not automatically apply to it.
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.
Check whose choice a joint-account privacy opt-out changes
A privacy choice for a joint financial account may apply to everyone on the account or allow an individual election. The institution’s notice should explain its method. Read that section before submitting a choice on the assumption it affects only your mail.
Ask which source supplied your mailing address
Write to the sender and ask two questions: what source supplied the record used for this mailing, and how you can stop its postal marketing. Ask plainly and do not accuse the sender of anything. The sender may name a list provider or its own records, or it may decline to answer. The second question makes your postal marketing request clear even if the source remains unknown.
Ask about promotional mail after a data-deletion response
When a promotion arrives after a company answered your deletion request, reread that answer before you write back. Note what the company said it removed and what it said it kept. Then ask which remaining record supports the new mailing and how to suppress it. Ask the question without claiming that the company broke a rule.
Ask whether a postal preference covers partner sharing
Asking a company to stop mailing you may not change whether it shares your information with partners. Ask about each one in its own numbered question. Then you can see which one the sender answered.
Find postal marketing language in a privacy policy
Open the sender's privacy policy and search it for the words mail, postal and address. Copy the section heading and the sentence that mentions mailed offers, then find the route the policy gives for marketing choices. Some policies never mention paper mail, and some point to a separate preference page. Either way, your quote and the route you find tell you what to ask for.
Use a privacy portal when it offers a mail-only choice
If a company's privacy portal lists a choice about postal marketing, consider that choice before a full deletion request. A deletion request may remove records you want the company to keep, and it may not say anything about printed advertising. Read every control the portal offers, then pick the one whose description covers the mail you want to stop.
Separate a public directory entry from advertising lists
Removing a listing from a web directory may not change the paper advertising you receive. The directory operator and the companies mailing you can be different businesses, and each one has its own process. Write them down in separate rows, then use each row's route.
Keep each adult’s privacy and mailing choices separate
Do not assume one adult's privacy or mailing request covers everyone at the address. A company may keep a separate record for each person, and each adult decides what to request in their own name. A shared worksheet can show who chose which action with which sender.