3 November

Some browsers can attach a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal when you connect to a website, and the GPC website says the signal is meant to communicate a request not to sell or share your personal data under the California Consumer Privacy Act. According to the California Secretary of State's results and voter guide, on 3 November 2020 California voters approved Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), with 56.2% of the vote, and the act gave the power to set technical specifications for such signals to a newly created California Privacy Protection Agency. The agency's current regulations require businesses that sell or share personal information to treat a signal meeting those specifications as a valid opt-out request, but the act defines a consumer as a California resident, so we infer that readers living elsewhere, Asia included, gain no protection under this law by turning GPC on. Japan regulates a different step: under its Telecommunications Business Act, as amended with effect from 16 June 2023, online services such as messaging, social media, search and news that use tags to send user data to outside parties must notify users or publish what is sent, or else obtain consent or offer a way to stop it, and the ministry's explainer we read does not mention browser signals such as GPC (checked 23 October 2026). Anyone who wants to send the signal can use the DuckDuckGo browser or install DuckDuckGo's extension in their current browser (its help page said as of 2 November that both have GPC on by default), though none of the sources say whether websites honour signals from users outside California.