Websites that have your information and that you should opt-out from.
As someone who values privacy, I became sort of obsessed with finding out what information was available on me by Googling my full name.
This obviously led me down a rabbit hole of researching and trying to figure out how data mining worked. I guess my first mistake was registering to vote at 18, because your voter registration data becomes public data.
Whitepages collects data from diverse sources, primarily through public records. Some example of public records include court filings, government databases, and property records. Additionally, they may gather information from your public social media profiles, websites, and data brokers.
Did you know that when you go the car dealership and sign a contract to buy a new car they sell your information to other third party affiliates. That is why later on you get a letter in the mail about your privacy rights and how you can opt-out.
Kia, Subaru and Mitsubishi contribute to the LexisNexis which is a “portal for sharing consumer-approved connected car data with insurers.” LexisNexis is a third party data aggregator. They collect information primarily through public records as well. Many companies use them to verify potential employee information to verify your identity and do a background check.
You can opt out of LexisNexis, but if you don’t have a report on you, it can create issues with companies that use them as a vendor to verify your identity and do a background check.
When your social media is public it is periodically skimmed by data brokers, data aggregator companies, data collection companies and third party websites.
I was already threading lightly with Facebook, but after the “Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal” of 2016 I deleted my Facebook shortly after.
The following are websites that I have opted out from:
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Other websites that may have your email information:
zoominfo.com
hunter.io
adapt.io
It is also important for you to know that new companies are created daily and gather the same information that was already deleted. For example InstantCheckmate and Truthfinder are owned by the same people. They are two data brokers that harvest data.
Linkedin’s data was scrubbed by HiQ Labs, that used bots to scrape over 150 million professionals’ LinkedIn usernames, email addresses and phone numbers and then showed up in rocketreach.co
Due to these companies keep being created, it seems like it is a never ending cycle where your information is constantly being scrubbed and sold and showing up at different websites. And in my opinion if they keep doing it, you're entitled to file a lawsuit.
I went on a tangent with this article, but my whole point is you should be keeping tabs on where your data is by doing a quick Google Search on yourself and documenting each time you submit an opt out form.
Make note of the email you used, the date you submitted the form, and how many times you’ve asked them to remove it. Then, if it keeps showing up file a lawsuit.
