Hey folks, in my ongoing attempt to help us all stay safe, I've created a guide on how to remove your PII from the places it's most likely to be found on the internet. The list of places to opt-out of isn't exhaustive, but, it's a very good start.
The following are the main PII/People Search data providers, listed in order of exposure potential.
Remove yourself from these, and most of the smaller affiliate sites will also drop your records out of their databases.
https://www.familytreenow.com/optout
* BeenVerified.com
https://www.beenverified.com/app/optout/search
* Intelius.com
https://www.intelius.com/privacy-center
* Zoominfo.com
https://privacyrequest.zoominfo.com/remove/verify
* Spokeo.com
https://www.spokeo.com/optout
* Ana.net
https://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN
* Radaris.com
https://radaris.com/control/privacy
* Acxiom.com
https://www.acxiom.com/optout/
* MyLife.com
https://www.mylife.com/ccpa/index.pubview
* PeekYou.com
https://www.peekyou.com/about/contact/ccpa_optout/do_not_sell/
* USSearch.com
https://www.ussearch.com/privacy-center
* PeopleFinders.com
https://www.peoplefinders.com/opt-out
* PrivateEye.com
https://www.privateeye.com/static/view/contact/
* WhitePages.com
https://www.whitepages.com/privacy/consumer-rights
* USA-People-Search.com
https://www.usa-people-search.com/manage
* PublicRecordsNow.com
https://www.publicrecordsnow.com/static/view/contact/
And for Images (especially for the ladies):
*Pimeyes.com
https://pimeyes.com/en/opt-out-request-form
* Tineye.com
https://tineye.com/image_removal
Some things to note about all the above:
If you've changed your name, you'll likely need to remove your old name as well as your PII, even new PII, will be attached to your previous name.
All of these services will ask for an email so they can send you a link to click as part of their opt-out process, use a *new* protonmail.com email for this.
Opt-Out's aren't permanent, so, you'll have to run back through this list every 6 months or so to keep your information out of their databases.
Most of these sites will take ~7 days to process the removal request, and search engines will take ~30 days to stop showing these sites in their results, so you have to be patient in order to check your work.
Any site not on this list will likely have a way to opt out via a "do not sell my personal information" link, or a contact page with a similar opt-out procedure, both often located at the very bottom of their homepage. Wait ~45days to go after any of them, as they likely are just purchasing data from the above sites, and your opt-out request will trickle down to them eventually.
All that to say, I'd love to help each and every one of you stay safer, but, I can only teach you how, as doing this for you would require you to send me all of your PII, and neither of us want that kind of liability. I am very happy to answer questions here, or via DM, if you have them, and I've also linked this post, in pastebin format, below, so you can send it along to other people without revealing that you got it from TER
No thanks, I like living on the edge.
Consumer Reports does a data-removal thing, see link.
If you're on social media,use a smartphone, use Alexa ,whatsApp etc...then don't waste time on those sites you mentioned. They are the least of our problems. Government agencies have access to all I have mentioned above and then some. But yes , it good to reduce how much unecessary information we put out there considering scammers.
It's a lot more than just goverment that has the data. You also need to include your car in that list of threat vectors if it has any connected type capabilities -- such as getting naviational or other system updates over some wireless connection.
This is more tailored to hiding from the average person, you know, 99.9999% of everyone, not that special fraction of people who have access to PRISM/Clearview/Cognitec/etc. You certainly *can* hide from those folks, at least to an extent, it's just not really necessary, and I certainly wouldn't teach someone how to do it.
What this list gives you is a way to prevent scammers/stalkers/etc from finding you, and that risk profile is a good fit for nearly everyone in the hobby. Far from a waste of time.
If you have a Discover Card they will purge your information for free.