Californians will be able to delete their personal information from data brokers all at once under the Delete Act, a first-in-the-nation measure celebrated by privacy advocates but concerning for digital services, now signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.

The Delete Act (SB 362) tasks the California Privacy Protection Agency with running the state’s data broker registry and, by 2026, creating a one-stop tool for consumers to delete all their personal information from every registered data broker.

Ad agencies, retailers and other data-driven industries say the definition of data broker and consequences of the consumer deletion tool are too broad. They say the result could be an unintended blow to the Internet’s broader data-driven ecosystem.

“Smaller technology companies, as well as the medium and even larger data brokers that are registered, provide support to other companies that are frequently outside of the technology arena,” said Jason Sarfati, privacy and legal officer at Gravy Analytics, a location intelligence company. He supports the legislation’s aim but said the deletion mechanism creates challenges.