Senate Probe Finds Data Brokers Hid Opt-Out Pages From Google Indexing

A U.S. Senate investigation led by Sen. Maggie Hassan found that several major data brokers placed "no index" code on their opt-out or "do not sell" pages, preventing search engines like Google from listing those pages and making it harder for people to stop the sale of their personal data. The report names Comscore, IQVIA, Digital, Telesign, and 6sense Insights as having used the code, and says four of them removed it only after pressure from Hassan’s office. Another firm, Findem, had not removed the code from its "Do not sell or share my personal information" page at the time of the report, later blaming a spam filter for missing the Senate’s email. 6sense defended its practices in a detailed statement, saying its core Privacy Center opt-out page remained indexed and that the "no index" directive was on its Privacy Policy page to reduce spam, but acknowledged removing the directive once the committee raised the issue. The investigation follows earlier work by The Markup and CalMatters showing dozens of brokers hiding opt-out instructions, and raises broader questions about whether companies subject to state privacy laws are making legally required opt-out rights practically accessible or burying them behind technical roadblocks.