Minnesota data privacy & data broker removal

Minnesota has a comprehensive privacy law that gives you the right to access, delete, and control your personal data. Here is how those rights work in practice and how to remove yourself from data brokers.

Your rights in Minnesota

Minnesota residents are protected by the Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (MCDPA).

• Right to Access & Know: Request a copy of the personal information a company holds about you.
• Right to Correct: Request corrections to inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Delete: Ask a company to delete your personal information.
• Right to Data Portability: Get your data in a portable format you can take to another service.
• Right to Opt Out of Sale: Tell a company to stop selling your personal information.
• Right to Opt Out of Targeted Advertising: Stop companies from targeting you with ads based on your personal data.
• Right to Opt Out of Profiling: Stop companies from building a behavioral profile about you.
• Question/contest the result of profiling
• Obtain a list of the specific third parties your data was disclosed to
• Right to Appeal: Challenge a company's decision to deny your privacy request.

Does this cover the company that has my data?

Most companies that collect or sell personal data in Minnesota are likely covered. The law applies to a business if it controls or processes the personal data of 100,000 or more Minnesota consumers, or 25,000 or more consumers while earning over 25% of its gross revenue from selling personal data. Smaller businesses are generally exempt, but they still need your opt-in consent before selling sensitive data.

How to remove yourself from data brokers in Minnesota

Your state law gives you the right to request deletion, but exercising it across every site that holds your data takes real effort. Here are the most effective steps, in order.

1. Enable Global Privacy Control

Global Privacy Control is a free browser setting that automatically tells every website you visit not to sell or share your data. It takes two minutes to enable and works quietly in the background on every site. Minnesota law requires covered businesses to honor it, so this is not just a request. It carries legal weight.

2. Submit direct opt-out requests

For brokers not covered by the registry or GPC, you can submit requests directly. Look for the "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link in each company's website footer; most major brokers have one. You can also submit formal access, deletion, or correction requests through each company's privacy policy page.

Under Minnesota's law, covered companies must respond within the statutory deadline. If they don't, you have grounds to file a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General.

3. Automate ongoing removal

Here is the part nobody tells you: even after you complete every step above, brokers re-ingest your information from public records, data-sharing networks, and commercial databases. Within a few months, your profiles reappear. Staying removed is not a one-time task. It is ongoing work that most people cannot keep up with by hand.

Minnesota's data broker law: what it means for you

Minnesota does not have a dedicated data-broker registry. Most national data brokers are registered in California and honor opt-out requests from residents of any state, but without a Minnesota-specific law requiring it, you have little recourse if a broker ignores your request. Delist handles this across many brokers and states in one place.

Other privacy protections in Minnesota

Beyond the comprehensive privacy law, Minnesota has additional protections that may apply to you:

• Address confidentiality: Minnesota's Safe at Home program, run by the Secretary of State, gives survivors of domestic violence, stalking, and others at risk a substitute mailing address to use in place of their real one.
• Biometric data: Minnesota has no standalone biometric-privacy statute you can sue under, but biometric data counts as sensitive data under the MCDPA, so companies need your consent before collecting it.

How to file a privacy complaint in Minnesota

File a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General at ag.state.mn.us/Office/Complaint.asp.

The Attorney General generally investigates patterns of violations rather than resolving individual disputes. Filing a complaint still matters: it builds the record that helps trigger enforcement.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• revisor.mn.gov
• ag.state.mn.us
• bigid.com