Comment by rootusrootus
4 months ago
You can get some of the major sources to remove you with a service like Optery [0]. Costs a few bucks, but if you let them work at it a few months you can drop the subscription and the effects will linger for a while before you start finding yourself on public databases again.
I used it myself and I have trouble finding information about myself, even with my inside knowledge. If someone is determined enough you probably can't really hide from them, especially if they have any connections to law enforcement or one of the big data sinks. But you can definitely make it harder for casuals.
I just can't get myself to pay for this problem that's ultimately a failure of the government and relies on another corporation behaving with my data
fortunately I'm a California resident so looks like that government has passed a solution that's free, thanks for sharing that guys
Eventually I hope other states like Oregon will get that, since they tend to copy California legislation. But in the meantime, I will pay a few bucks, because while it may be a failure of the government, I cannot wave a magic wand and fix that. But I can make the data itself go away for awhile.
Here in sweden, personal data such as name, address, income, birth date, personal number, car ownership, etc. is public by design.
I find it interesting how the view on this differs depending on country and what people are used to.
The issue is the spam
All of our personal identification data is available, not by design, but it is available
3 replies →
The one I do find interesting, is how the concept of "privacy" has changed in the internet realm.
It wasn't all that long ago I could look up anybody in my town (or any town really) in a big book, and get contact details for them. Unless they specifically opt-out.
But now that concept is seen as madness.
Now companies no longer even list phone numbers or e-mail addresses on their own websites!