Salem, Oregon – Oregon officials used Data Privacy Day, which happens every year on January 28, to talk about a big change in how people can keep their personal information safe online. Attorney General Dan Rayfield urged Oregonians to take advantage of a new “Universal Opt-Out” option. This tool is designed to simplify and strengthen consumer control over digital data.
The Oregon Consumer Privacy Act made the Universal Opt-Out available to everyone in the state on January 1, 2026. It lets people prevent covered companies, even nonprofits, from selling or sharing their personal information or utilizing it for targeted ads. Instead of having to change privacy settings on dozens of different websites, users can turn on a single browser setting or extension that sends a message to all websites asking them not to sell their data.
Rayfield said the development shows how much personal information is a part of everyday internet life.
“You could be doing something very ordinary online – looking up a medical concern, researching a school for your kid, or just reading the news – and that information quietly gets packaged and sold without you ever saying yes,” said Attorney General Rayfield.
“Universal Opt-Out changes that. It gives Oregonians a simple way to draw a line once and have it respected across the internet, instead of having to hunt for a ‘do not sell’ button on every site.”
The Oregon Consumer Privacy Act, which went into effect in July 2024, set up a larger privacy framework that includes the Universal Opt-Out. The goal of the law was to allow people and families more control over private information such home addresses, browsing history, and financial information. Before this upgrade, anyone who didn’t want their data sold had to go to each website and do it themselves, which many people found confusing or time-consuming.
Businesses must now detect specific electronic signals received straight from a user’s browser, which makes compliance automatic when the opt-out setting is turned on. This change means that businesses have to respect what customers want, instead of people having to keep an eye on how their data is used all the time.
Every year on January 28, people all around the world celebrate Data Privacy Day. The goal is to raise awareness about how to protect personal information. The topic for 2026 is “Take Control of Your Data,” which is very similar to Oregon’s recent legislative agenda, which stresses individual choice and transparency in the digital environment.
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Along with the Universal Opt-Out, the privacy law has been updated recently to include a number of important protections. It is now against the law to sell personal information on children under 16. The law also makes it illegal to sell exact geolocation data for all Oregon consumers. This is in response to increased concerns about location tracking. The law’s “cure period” is now over, which means that businesses and other entities are now totally responsible for following privacy rules without any time to correct problems.
State authorities want people to learn more about these protections and how to turn on the Universal Opt-Out through the Oregon Department of Justice’s Consumer Privacy tools. The information is provided by the department’s Economic Justice Section, which focuses on safeguarding Oregon families and ensuring that data privacy rights are clearly understood and respected.
Oregon’s new privacy tools are meant to give residents clearer, easier options to govern how their personal information is used as digital activity continues to grow. This shows that protecting data doesn’t have to mean giving up convenience.
