Data Broker Brags About Having Highly Detailed Personal Information on Nearly All Internet Users

[livelm@lemmy.zip]

Then somebody goes and Mario Bro's this motherfucker and droves of people come out going "oh but he didn't deserve it!!!" 🤬

[d3lta19@lemmy.ca]

This is awesome. How have I never heard of this

[killertofu@lemmy.world]

Welcome Mr 10,000

https://xkcd.com/1053/

[lattrommi@lemmy.ml]

Happy to see this. I had a similar idea once. About every 6 months I spend a day searching a few search engines for my name. My name is fairly unique. At least one person shares my first and last name. I have seen them appear in results, listed with criminal charges that were mine. The ones that show up, I look for 'remove my data and do not sell my information' instructions. If they are not there, I look for a contact page and e-mail them. in the email i include:

• links with my data i want removed

• links with my data misrepresenting other people, also with a request to remove

companies that blatently disregard me or remove my data but return it later, by accident or not, after some time has passed, will also get requests to remove:

• arbitrary links to random people which have nothing to do with me but might be confused thanks to enough similarities.

• many of the same requests, from several different e-mails, basically spamming them.

the idea, which is probably pointless, is to taint the data on the sites that don't comply. i also assume the companies that return my info later, are tagging all removal requests together, because why would i want to remove the data of a completely unrelated stranger? i'm wishfully thinking they end up with bad data that damages their reputation. i call it 'fauxkakke' aka 'fake bukakke.

the template:

I understand this information is gathered from public sources and can still be found through other data brokers. I still wish for the linked profiles to be removed from your site.
{links}
If you claim that I have to pay a fee to remove my personal information from your website, I will file complaints at the following sites:
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/
https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started
http://www.reddit.com/
This is not meant to be threatening. I have no ill feelings towards your company. I also am sending e-mails to other data brokers. I am merely exercising my right to privacy.

[duamerthrax@lemmy.world]

How would they know any of it is accurate?

Doesn't matter. Advertisement has never been about truth.

[adespoton@lemmy.ca]

Actually, this raises more questions. If ZoomInfo is anything to go by, I’m about 5 different people, none of which accurately map to the real me.

And that’s just me; there’s millions of bots and dogs on the Internet.

[monkdervierte@lemmy.ml]

And most of it is wrong.

[Guest]

Generally you can google the site name and then “removal request” and their portal will be visible.

Some more useful info:
California maintains a list of data brokers, available Here

Also, paid services will scan these lists and initiate takedown requests on your behalf automatically. I’ve found optery to be good but there are other services as well

[gonzako@lemmy.world]

sadly I didn't manage to actually get it working on my setups

[duamerthrax@lemmy.world]

I think the scariest thing going forward isn't some alphabet agency finding your anti-social messages. It's some shitbox algorithm having a false positive and deicing you're a threat to the regime.

[fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com]

Says it's FOSS. No source link on site. No source link on add-on page. I am skeptical.

[notprolemmy@lemmy.ml]

Dont hang them by the toes, just burn them alive while they are shot left and right with everything they like & love being erased in front of them.