Policy, Legal & Regulatory
Websites break California privacy law at ‘industrial scale,’ survey finds (Themarkup)
Summary: A webXray audit of over 7,000 popular websites indicates widespread noncompliance with California’s Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal requirement under the CCPA. The report finds major tech firms—Google (86% failure rate), Meta (69%), and Microsoft (50%)—frequently track users despite receiving the opt-out signal. The researchers describe this as ‘industrial-scale noncompliance,’ with potential fines reaching billions if fully enforced.
Why it matters: The scale of alleged non-compliance suggests the CCPA’s core opt-out mechanism is functionally broken for many users, shifting the enforcement burden squarely onto the California Privacy Protection Agency and testing the practical limits of state-level digital regulation.
Context: The CCPA mandates that businesses honor the GPC signal, a browser-based setting that tells websites not to sell or share personal information. The CPPA has previously levied fines for violations, but this audit suggests the problem is systemic rather than isolated.
"The Markup, now a part of CalMatters, uses investigative reporting, data analysis, and software engineering to challenge technology to serve the public good. Sign up for Klaxon, a newsletter that delivers our." — THEMARKUP
Commentary: The gap between corporate statements of compliance and observed technical behavior forces a reckoning: either the CPPA escalates enforcement to a level matching the report’s scale, or the GPC becomes a de facto dead letter. The technical simplicity of the fix—’slight changes to the tracking code’—highlights non-compliance as a deliberate cost-benefit calculation, not an oversight.
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400
URL: https://themarkup.org/privacy/2026/04/21/websites-break-california-privacy-law-at-industrial-scale-survey-finds
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (60%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Background checks to curb dating app violence advance in California legislature (Themarkup)
Summary: The California Senate’s public safety committee has advanced SB 1375, a bill requiring online dating services to conduct criminal background checks on California users and flag profiles of registered sex offenders or individuals convicted of violent felonies, domestic violence, assault, or hate crimes. The bill’s author, State Senator Caroline Menjivar, argues dating apps have failed to provide adequate user safety, citing a 2019 survey where over a third of women polled reported sexual assault by someone they met on an app. Industry group TechNet and Senator Scott Wiener oppose the measure, citing privacy concerns and operational challenges in data collection and user identification.
Why it matters: This bill, if enacted, would impose a first-of-its-kind regulatory burden on dating platforms, shifting liability and operational costs onto them while testing the limits of user privacy and algorithmic risk assessment in consumer-facing social apps.
Context: The legislative push follows investigative reporting by The Markup and others alleging that platforms like those owned by Match Group have knowingly allowed users accused of sexual violence to remain active, despite victim reports.
"The Markup, now a part of CalMatters, uses investigative reporting, data analysis, and software engineering to challenge technology to serve the public good. Sign up for Klaxon, a newsletter that delivers our." — THEMARKUP
Commentary: The bill operationalizes a public safety mandate through a blunt instrument—public labeling—which creates immediate enforcement risk for platforms and could trigger a patchwork of state-level regulations. The privacy committee amendments will be critical; a narrowed scope focusing on verified convictions, not accusations, might survive legal challenges, while a broader net could collapse under implementation cost and misidentification risk.
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:00:00 -0400
URL: https://themarkup.org/news/2026/04/17/dating-apps-would-bestow-scarlet-letter-under-safety-bill-advancing-in-the-california-legislature
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (88%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Post ID: 51024a95