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It's an ongoing battle but have made it a "hobby" to delete myself online. There are fee-based companies to do this but even those have limitations (check reviews). I set up a new email solely for this to save/track each request. Most companies have an Unsubscribe though they make it hard to find so I use several free on-line guides that list major brokers like this https://www.inteltechniques.com/workbook.html
Many do-it-yourself articles about how to remove your info. Yes, states making big bucks selling driver license info.
Sometimes have to open a new tab then search for e.g Mugshot.com + unsubscribe to find how. Some have every address/phone you've ever had and make you unsubscribe to every link. I tackle them 1x1. It's tedious but have managed to delete my info which greatly reduced spam calls and junk mail. I search my phone number to attack those companies first. Have to search again every few months because new 3rd party brokers show up.
There is/was a new bill in congress American Data Privacy And Protection Act which unsurprisingly has stalled out. Among other positives, would make it easier to opt out.
Best wishes, make it a fly swatting hobby to let off steam.
Not sure where to post this thread, but this forum seemed like the most likely place. I am sure some of you do not know about this, so you are in for a shock....
If you google your name and/or your address, you will be STUNNED to see tons of your personal information posted on websites owned and operated by some scum trying to make money off of selling your personal information. I discovered this a few years ago and asked to be removed from several sites, which I was, but I found out that after a while, they republish your information all over again.
I would personally like to put a. bullet through the heads of the scumbags who do this, but since I am unlikely to ever find out who all they are and track them down one by one, I would like to know if there is some way to PERMANENTLY stop them.
Have you had experience with this sort of thing? What do you recommend? I just cannot believe anyone would invade people's private lives like this.
You do know the concept of PUBLIC records? Some data is public by law. If you own property in your name, that becomes public record. I could go on. There are ways to go "grey" by using shell corporations and other means, but that takes money and someone familiar with the ins and outs.
Be careful though. You can read about the difficulties kids without a social security number have when they get to an employer, the lack of credit history that prevents taking out a loan, and family not being notified upon death. Privacy has always been a trade-off.
Sexual predators HATE that their information is online. Oh well. Sounds like a personal problem to me. Deadbeats who don't pay bills get caught out when trying to rent. Oh well.
If you don't like getting phone calls - change your number and don't give the new number out.
I get a chuckle when I google myself. I apparently live in three different states, have different marital statuses, and have relatives that I never knew.
I get a chuckle when I google myself. I apparently live in three different states, have different marital statuses, and have relatives that I never knew.
What I've noticed (having moved several times over 40 years) is that my records reflect the towns where I was either arrested, or reported being the victim of a crime. But the towns where I had uneventful life, are absent from the reports
It's an ongoing battle but have made it a "hobby" to delete myself online. There are fee-based companies to do this but even those have limitations (check reviews). I set up a new email solely for this to save/track each request. Most companies have an Unsubscribe though they make it hard to find so I use several free on-line guides that list major brokers like this https://www.inteltechniques.com/workbook.html
Many do-it-yourself articles about how to remove your info. Yes, states making big bucks selling driver license info.
Sometimes have to open a new tab then search for e.g Mugshot.com + unsubscribe to find how. Some have every address/phone you've ever had and make you unsubscribe to every link. I tackle them 1x1. It's tedious but have managed to delete my info which greatly reduced spam calls and junk mail. I search my phone number to attack those companies first. Have to search again every few months because new 3rd party brokers show up.
There is/was a new bill in congress American Data Privacy And Protection Act which unsurprisingly has stalled out. Among other positives, would make it easier to opt out.
Best wishes, make it a fly swatting hobby to let off steam.
Thank you, Brightsider. I agree, they have unsubscribe links but do make it a chore to unsubscribe. Just the idea of "unsubscribing" makes me bloody angry since I never subscribed in the first place. I opted out of some a long time ago but did not realise that they only end up putting your information back on line a few weeks or maybe months later. There are a lot of ways to try to make money in this world, but the people who do this are less than pond scum in my opinion.
I cannot believe that bill did not pass. Surely most everyone out there is unhappy about his/her information being published on-line. I hope one day someone suffers enough damage that they end up suing the living daylights out of one of these "companies" and gets a multi-million dollar judgment against the slime.
You do know the concept of PUBLIC records? Some data is public by law. If you own property in your name, that becomes public record. I could go on. There are ways to go "grey" by using shell corporations and other means, but that takes money and someone familiar with the ins and outs.
Be careful though. You can read about the difficulties kids without a social security number have when they get to an employer, the lack of credit history that prevents taking out a loan, and family not being notified upon death. Privacy has always been a trade-off.
Sexual predators HATE that their information is online. Oh well. Sounds like a personal problem to me. Deadbeats who don't pay bills get caught out when trying to rent. Oh well.
If you don't like getting phone calls - change your number and don't give the new number out.
I get a chuckle when I google myself. I apparently live in three different states, have different marital statuses, and have relatives that I never knew.
Yes, but in the old days, someone had to really badly want this "public information" and personally go to the source to obtain it. The result was that very few people would go downtown to search property records for example.
I have read about buying services that, for example, cloak your real phone number and scan the Internet to remove your information. Is it not ironic that those b*st*rds who are behind these websites are effectively making money directly off of you not just by selling your information but also by causing you to have to pay money of your own to try to protect your info? Notice, too, that if you ask who is behind these sites, they will not reveal who THEY are. Tells you a lot....
Here is some very good news a lot of folks can use if they have Discover Card.
One of the benefits of the card now is that you can use the app to activate their service to remove your information from at least 30 sites that sell it. The programme or whatever they use to do this scans for you every 90 days and automatically submits requests to those sites to have your information removed. Aside from fraud protection, this is bar none the BEST benefit I have ever seen offered by a bank card.
If you are using an old version of the app, delete the app and download it again. You will see the On-line Privacy offer and activate it once you log in.
If you do not use a Discover Card, this is an excellent reason to apply for one. They also have 100% U.S. based customer service---another HUGE plus in my opinion. You have to love Discover!
It seems that you know very little how internet and privacy in the US works.
Lots of info to read ...
Most people have little idea just how massive are the databases of personal info that are out there. Here's an article that illuminates what's going on out there.
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I googled my name and the only pertinent hit I got was “Puginabug is on Facebook! Connect with Puginabug!” All the other Puginabugs that came up were not me. A bunch were obituaries, and I’m pretty sure I’m not dead yet.
I get a chuckle when I google myself. I apparently live in three different states, have different marital statuses, and have relatives that I never knew.
I'm also a glitch in the matrix. Almost all the listings have me as being 25 years older and 'current' location from 15-20 years ago. Still, I don't like that any of it is on the internet, period.
I understand that there are public records released by the government, but why are they openly available on the internet? This is how most of us end up on the dark web, where info is amassed on individuals until there's enough of it to strike and cause mayhem or profit.
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+ unsubscribe to find how. Some have every address/phone you've ever had and make you unsubscribe to every link. I tackle them 1x1. It's tedious but have managed to delete my info which greatly reduced spam calls and junk mail. I search my phone number to attack those companies first. Have to search again every few months because new 3rd party brokers show up. 
