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I regularly audit and remove unwanted information from internet sites. I can Google my self and find nothing even though I run a business and have a web site on the internet for it. My name and address appear nowhere on the site.
Interesting thread, and a good article referenced in the originating post!
Being the curious type, I entered my name into that peekyou search site and found some information but not nearly all of it that I know is available via my various websites and blogs using my real name.
Nevertheless, I used the link at the bottom to request that my information be deleted, just to see what would happen.
Sent the "remove" email this morning.
Received this reply just now (approx 4 hours for them to reply - not too bad):
Quote:
My apologies for the confusion. PeekYou is a search engine, just like Google, except we are focused sorting out where people exist on the web. It is editable in a Wikipedia type manner so you can control the content of the search results (unlike Google). The site is simply designed to help people find the pages you have created on the web.
Per your request, we have removed your PeekYou page.
We feel we are helping educate people about the public nature of the internet. We encourage people to participate in the online world as they would in real life, as the pages they place online are likely to be found.
Again, I apologize for the confusion. Thanks for checking us out.
Sincerely,
PeekYou.com
I don't know that I was confused exactly, as I followed the directions in their privacy policy to have my info removed - but whatever. Sounds like typical webspeak. The only thing missing was overuse of exclamation points.
Thanks!!
Of course, when I went to do the search again, my information was still there - unchanged. Big surprise (not).
They even have my grandmothers info who passed away years ago!!
I didnt know you could REQUEST THE INFO DELETED egglady!! (I always edit the info to something bogus) Where is the link for that?? (I dont see it on the page)
I have found my info on there (Linked to my family) 7 times now.. IT PI$$ES ME OFF!! (I have even found my name is there BACKWARDS (Last name first) I edit the info each time!!
Sites like this should not exist!! (Invasion of privacy)
Dude111 the link is down at the bottom, you have to click on the little Privacy Policy link, and on the Privacy Policy page scroll down to Sharing of Public Profile Information
It provides an email to request to have your info removed.
The email link does not work as-is though, you need to delete the [ Remove_This ] part out of the middle of it for the email link to work. I just pasted it in the subject line.
The information will come back though. As mine did. Every time a search is run on the name, it collects the information from the web again. So it's prettymuch a loosing battle. But you can write and ***** them out if you want to
Yes you did. They are using a combination of publicly available data such as telephones and addresses, along with information you voluntarily supplied to various website such as Facebook. Those sites made you sign an agreement that your data would be visible or available. These people mine that data and access it.
All of this is data that you, or someone responsible for you, supplied voluntarily.
Quote:
Sites like this should not exist!! (Invasion of privacy)
And invasion of privacy is when someone accesses data you secured from public view. If you supplied the data, it is not private.
Let me give you some example of things you can do to keep your name off sites like this.
1. Never use your real name to sign up for anything. Never. Not ever, ever, ever. When you use a credit card online, do not allow the vendor to store or cache the credit card data.
2. Have a PO box or mail service to use as a mailing address. Never, ever, ever give out your physical home address.
3. When you purchase a major piece of property, such as a home or vehicle, do it through a named trust. The trust owns the property, and you are the caretaker. This keeps your name off the publicly available records as the owner.
4. Set up a private sole-proprietorship to buy and sell things under. Basically, use a business name instead of your real name.
5. Use an alias or nickname when dealing with people who are not immediate family and friends.
6. Don't have an email address with your real name in it.
Those are the easy things you can do to secure your privacy. There are harder things and things to protect your privacy from the government if you want even more privacy, but that's too much to go into here.
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