Jan. 28, 2021

In conjunction with Data Privacy Day, we are excited to announce a major milestone on the path to making the Global Privacy Control (GPC) legally binding under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Millions of users have adopted GPC-enabled technologies, and major publishers--alongside hundreds of thousands of smaller websites--support GPC as a valid means for California consumers to opt out of the sale of their personal information.

As of today, over 40 million users are utilizing a browser or extension with GPC support—such as Abine, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Disconnect, and Privacy Badger. Major publishers such as The New York Times now recognize the GPC signal as a valid opt-out of sale under CCPA. Others, including The Washington Post, Meredith Digital (People.com, Allrecipes.com, etc), Automattic (WordPress.com), and CafeMedia have committed to honoring it this coming quarter. Leading Consent Management Platforms OneTrust, Sourcepoint, WireWheel, and Complianz.io also now support GPC so we expect to see many more publishers and websites that agree to honor GPC in the coming months.

The introduction of privacy regulations such as the CCPA and the newly passed California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) give consumers the legal right to opt out of the sale of their data, including via automated means such as a browser-based Global Privacy Control. Two months ago, we announced the initial experimental phase of GPC and are excited to see its growing adoption in the marketplace.

With millions of people exercising their rights and a common implementation across multiple technology providers, we believe GPC answers California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s call for frictionless privacy controls and can ultimately be legally binding under CCPA and CPRA.

We invite other browsers, publishers, and online businesses to meet the growing demand for online privacy by respecting their customers’ preferences and supporting GPC.

Quotes from Participating Orgs

The trust of our readers is essential, and privacy is about trust. Supporting Global Privacy Control on nytimes.com is a powerful way for us to meet more of our readers’ expectations of privacy in relevant jurisdictions by providing them with a simple, easy-to-use way to convey their preference once across all sites.

We take the privacy of our readers seriously and are committed to providing the best reading experience. With further adoption of GPC, it will allow us to continue to bring utility and value to our readers

Meredith Digital is committed to providing consumers choice and respecting their privacy in order to maintain and strengthen their trusted relationships with our brands. We have already provided CCPA rights nationally to consumers and are extremely supportive of GPC, which is part of our evolving efforts to our digital audience of 150 million consumers.

CafeMedia already enables CCPA Do Not Sell preferences for more than 3,000 independent publishers, reaching more than 170 million monthly active users. We will begin supporting GPC as a way to enable people to opt out of the sale of their personal information, as required by CCPA. We’re excited to build on our efforts to accurately reflect people’s preferences on how their personal information is used.

DuckDuckGo delivers all-in-one privacy protection in our mobile browser and desktop browser extension. Today, we are thrilled to be enabling GPC by default so that DuckDuckGo users can easily exercise their legal privacy rights on the hundreds of thousands of websites soon to be respecting GPC. Since we don’t track our users, we are also respecting the GPC signal ourselves on our website and private search engine at duckduckgo.com.

Privacy-by-default tools are necessary for a sustainable, trusted, user-focused Web, and this is why Brave implemented Global Privacy Control in our desktop and Android browsers last October, alongside our existing privacy protections. Today, we’re proud to say that GPC has been added to our iOS app as well, and is being rolled out across our websites, ensuring that all our users get the ultimate tracking protection they deserve.

Consumer’s expect privacy. As privacy professionals it is our responsibility to respect those choices, while also providing a consistent experience across the internet. OneTrust is honored to partner with GPC to expand individual privacy controls and support organizations in achieving compliance through the use of the Privacy Browser Signal.

Improving experience for users who want to exercise their data rights should be an imperative for all organizations. Sourcepoint is pleased to support the GPC initiative and drive continued innovation in consumer privacy experience.

WireWheel was founded on the principle of enabling companies to be the best stewards of their customer’s information, so we are excited to support GPC efforts to more easily and automatically exercise their privacy rights. As new privacy laws are enacted around the world, initiatives such as GPC will be critical to simplifying the process for consumers to communicate privacy preferences.

Complianz allows 200.000 websites around the globe to respect GPC as it is likely to become the next standard for consumers to exercise their rights under international privacy legislation.