Opting Out from Data Brokers

From http://juliaangwin.com/privacy-tools-opting-out-from-data-brokers/:

Review of mentioned book.

 

~~ Most Interesting how you leave a digital footprint everywhere you go ~~

Digital surveillance: How you're being tracked every day
• http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/digitalsurveillance/

 

You know this is a weird subject for me. On one hand I think these opt out options are good. On the other hand I can't stop thinking this is just a way for these brokers to get more info on me & update my contact info. B.S. (before Snowden) I could say to myself you're just being paranoid. Not now.

 

GREAT post!

I did something like this about 10 years ago, then again about 7 years ago. I built a list of how to do this, but lost the list in a HD failure and never spent the time recovering it.

Right now there is only (1) piece of information that can be googled on me, and that's some dumb old BBS list they won't remove my data from. Otherwise I am completely invisible when it comes to data brokers and search engines. Even my home street doesn't appear on Google/Bing Satellite images. I've sent many letters, had lawyer letter sent. It's not all that difficult, but it takes some initial effort to get it done. My reasoning for doing this was to future-proof my privacy, but also so I could learn how to do it for clients that have a keep interest in privacy for really important reasons. Such as CEO's, Sports Stars, and others I do work for. Those guys like to disappear off the radar.

 

Data Brokers Opt Out List

@DoctorPC: Thanks!

 

http://www.stopdatamining.me/
http://unlistmy.info/sites

 

FWIW,
I Googled myself a couple years ago and went to each specific site that had a profile/personal info on me and followed their instructions to opt-out.

Interestingly enough, a good number of them had the exact same fax number and email address to opt-out to, so it actually wasn't that hard (as one fax took care of multiple ones).

Since then I've been Googling myself every so often whenever I think about it, and I no longer pop up in any results.

 

U.S. regulator urges law to force disclosures by data brokers
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/27/usa-privacy-databrokers-idUSL1N0OD12K20140527
Opting out is nearly impossible - think of them as commercial NSA