Data Brokers’ and AI Firms’ Opt-Out Forms Are Built to Fail, Report Finds

EPIC audited opt-out processes of 38 major data-collecting companies—including AI vendors, data brokers, defense contractors, and dating apps—and identified at least eight manipulative design patterns (e.g., buried links, fragmented forms, account or payment requirements) that prevent users from effectively opting out of data sales. The report highlights failures by major LLM providers to surface opt-out mechanisms and notes people-search brokers only remove individual listings rather than stop selling data, framing these practices as safety and consumer-rights issues and citing a case where people-search data was used to locate murder victims.