When a journalist filed over 100 data access requests under the California Consumer Privacy Act, they encountered widespread non-compliance, with some companies — like Crunchbase and BeenVerified — deleting their data instead of providing it, despite explicit instructions not to. Others, like Cash App, effectively refused to process requests through channels their own privacy policies listed as valid options. Consumer advocates and legal experts argue these failures highlight how current frameworks place too much burden on individuals and that stronger "data minimization" rules — limiting what companies can collect in the first place — would better protect consumers.
