If You Have to Ask What a Penetration Test Is, You’re Probably Not Ready for One.  

The simplest trick in a hacker’s playbook is asking nicely. This week we double down with our second installment focused on the most basic method of cyber attack: Social engineering. 

As social engineer and SocialProof Security CEO Rachel Tobac explained to me at DEF CON, the most effective attacks are often focused on tricking people into an exploitable trust situation. 

The human element is often the attack vector because it reliably yields security vulnerabilities. So you’d think that’s something you want to test for at your company, right? 

According to Tobac, most organizations that ask for a penetration test aren’t prepared for this kind of attack, and in her work she routinely turns down requests because a pen test against an unprepared organization is often demoralizing, and usually a waste of time and money. As with all tests, her theory is best to take the class first, study, and then see how you do. 

All Too Human

When it comes to things cyber, the most effective attacks exploit human nature. The Social Engineering Community Village at DEF CON is the proving ground for this cybersecurity home truth. Gamifying the process, contestants enter a soundproof booth and call real companies to get real sensitive information in real time. The goal isn’t to be mean or threatening; it’s to provide proof of concept and a solution, that the human vector is real, and there is a solution. 

This is all about learning by doing. Social Engineers, attackers, and pen testers build rapport quickly, using small details to create a convincing story. The approach is informed after hours are spent scouring public information—from social media profiles to data broker sites—to find clues to start a conversation, connect and download information. A seemingly harmless detail found online could be the key to a physical breach. 

As Tobac explains, attackers know that even the most secure companies can be breached with the help of a well-placed phone call or a friendly voice.

The Art of Target Hardening

Q: If a pen test isn’t the first step, what is? A: target hardening.

Before Tobac ever attempts to hack a company, she works with them for months, and sometimes even a year, to update their security protocols. This isn’t a top-down mandate; it’s a collaborative process. Tobac runs workshops where frontline teams, like the IT help desk, are empowered to create their own identity verification procedures. By giving them ownership of the process, they’re more likely to follow it and feel confident in their ability to stop an attack. This approach ensures that a company’s defenses are built from the ground up, making the entire organization a much tougher target. When a pen test finally happens, it’s not a demoralizing, 30-second failure; it’s a meaningful exercise that tests a team that is ready to defend itself.

This layered, inside-out approach makes companies stronger before she ever tries to break in. But even the best in-house processes can’t erase the fact that employees’ personal details: phone numbers, home addresses, favorite movies, recent vacations, are shared across the internet, waiting to be exploited in a social-engineering attack.

The First Step Is Data Removal

One of the easiest ways to harden your company is to make it an annoying target. Attackers want the path of least resistance. If your information is hard to find, they’ll just move on to the next target that has its data readily available. 

This is where a digital footprint cleanup comes in. You can start by manually from data broker sites, or you can use a service like DeleteMe to do the work for you. Proactively removing this information is the first and most crucial step in making yourself less of a target.

Whether you’re a company or an individual, don’t wait to be hacked to realize you were never ready. Build resilience. Focus on preparing your team, strengthening your protocols, and cleaning up your public data first. A strong defense isn’t built in a day; it’s built one smart step at a time.

A pen test shouldn’t be the first step in security. It should be the final exam. The real work happens long before. By the time the test comes, the goal isn’t to catch you off guard, it’s to prove you’ve already made yourself harder to hit. 

Table of Contents

With multiple data broker removal service sites out there and each one claiming they’re the best, how can you decide which provider is the best for you? 

Besides going to each provider’s site and comparing their features and pricing (too time-consuming!) or asking around on forums (potentially biased opinions or no responses at all), your best source of genuine information is review sites. 

What Makes a Good Data Broker Removal Service Comparison Site?

Consider the following factors before trusting any information you read online, especially when looking at comparison sites for something as important as data broker removal. 

Objective

One of the most crucial elements to look for in a review site is objectivity. The reviews should be transparent and unbiased. It is critical to know that the site is not unduly influenced by monetary incentives from the services they’re reviewing. In other words, the reviewer shouldn’t be getting paid, directly or otherwise, from the service they are reviewing.

An ideal comparison site will provide honest assessments, highlighting strengths and potential concerns of the service, regardless of affiliations or partnerships.

Regularly updated

A reliable comparison site should frequently update its reviews to reflect the current state of the market and the provider’s offerings. This can include new features, pricing changes, or a new competitor that can offer better data removal.

Clear methodology

Every comparison site should have a defined methodology for evaluating services. This should be clearly explained and easily accessible to readers. Doing so lets you understand the criteria and factors when rating different services. 

Whether it’s the efficiency of the removal process, the cost, customer support quality, or any other metric, a clear methodology gives weight and credibility to the reviews.

Expertise

A comparison site isn’t much use if it’s written by someone without a proper understanding of data broker operations, privacy laws, and online security. The person or team behind a data broker service review needs to know what to look for in a data broker removal service, what questions to ask the provider, and how to assess each service. 

Since data broker removal services are experts in this space, it’s also important to look at their own website. 

Look for articles or help pages explaining how the data broker removal service works. The company should clearly state who can use its service, what sites it removes from, and what its customer support is like. 

See if you can find information like this on all the data broker removal sites you’re considering and compare them. 

Our DeleteMe review on the Abine site provides an example of what to look for when considering a data broker removal service.

Top Data Broker Removal Service Review Sites

Below are the top review sites we think you should consult with before you choose a data broker removal service. 

PCMag

As a massive tech industry titan, PCMag delivers in-depth reviews with expert insights about all things software and tech – and has been doing so for 40 years. PCMag’s data broker removal reviews are concise and detailed and offer information on price and reporting, among other things. Each review also comes with a rating (out of five), a quick summary (or “bottom line”), and pros and cons lists. This makes it easy for readers to choose the best provider quickly. Read PCMag DeleteMe review. 

Comparitech

Specializing in tech service comparisons, Comparitech crafts detailed reviews about VPNs, antivirus software, online backup services, streaming, and data brokers. Founded in 2015, this website has some of the most thorough reviews on top data broker removal services. Read Comparitech DeleteMe review. 

Sitejabber

Sitejabber is a community-driven review platform. It’s a helpful resource for finding new products and services and reading reviews about them. The user-generated feedback on data broker services provides an authentic pulse of customer satisfaction. There’s also a “Q&A” section where users can ask a company questions and receive answers directly from the company’s employees. Read Sitejabber DeleteMe reviews.

Cybernews

Cybernews dives deep into all aspects of online security and privacy. Their reviews on data broker removal are informative, offering a balanced look at the pros and cons of each service. Read Cybernews DeleteMe review. 

IdentityTheft.org

IdentityTheft.org is an online resource dedicated to preventing and managing identity theft. While not affiliated with any government or nonprofit organizations, the site complements Identitytheft.gov, an official government resource. IdentityTheft.org has reviews for data broker removal services, password managers, and other identity theft protection services. Read IdentityTheft.org’s DeleteMe review. 

ProPrivacy

With a focus on digital rights and privacy, ProPrivacy excels in detailed examinations of data broker platforms. Since 2013, ProPrivacy’s experts craft reviews that combine intricate technical analysis with real-world application. Their reviews offer readers a clear understanding of service effectiveness. Read ProPrivacy DeleteMe review. 

All About Cookies

Another great site where you can find tech reviews is All About Cookies. This is an online privacy, identity theft prevention, and antivirus protection blog. You’ll find plenty of information about keeping your data safe, secure, and away from data brokers. Read All About Cookies DeleteMe review.

Trustpilot

A juggernaut in the world of online reviews, Trustpilot is one of the top places to go when you want to learn more about a particular company. Instead of personally crafted reviews from experts, Trustpilot relies on users sharing their opinions and rating companies from one to five. Read Trustpilot DeleteMe review. 

YouTube

YouTube is a rich resource for in-depth reviews on various services and tools, including data broker removal services. YouTube’s interactive elements, such as comments and likes, allow viewers and creators to engage in discussions, ask questions, and provide real-time feedback, making YouTube a great tool for obtaining detailed and diverse perspectives. See DeleteMe’s YouTube review from the All Things Secured YouTube channel) and a comparison of DeleteMe vs Incogni by the YouTuber Craylor Made). 

Reddit

One of the best places to find unbiased reviews online, Reddit is an online forum divided into thousands of “subreddits,” each dedicated to specific interests, topics, or communities. It is a platform where users can discuss various subjects, including reviews of services such as data broker removals and upvote or downvote posts and comments, which influences the visibility of the content based on community approval. Read Reddit users’ experiences with DeleteMe. 

The Secure Dad

The Secure Dad covers online safety and security for families. Beyond digital concerns, the site provides insights, tips, and resources to help families stay safe. That includes books and free tools. The Secure Dad also has detailed reviews for data broker removal services. Read The Secure Dad DeleteMe review. 

VPN Overview

As its name suggests, VPN Overview is primarily dedicated to virtual private networks. But the site also covers other privacy and security topics (like anonymous browsing, dark web, antivirus, etc.) to help users keep their personal data and information safe. Read VPN Overview DeleteMe review.

All Things Secured

All Things Secured is an online security blog and review website that also has a popular YouTube channel. Key topics covered by All Things Secured are security basics, VPN security, password security, email security, and online data protection. The site also covers data broker removal services. Read All Things Secured DeleteMe review. 

Windows Report

Geared towards Windows users, Windows Report is an online publication founded in 2012 that provides tech news, tips, and reviews to more than 10 million monthly readers. On this site, you’ll find troubleshooting tutorials, PC guides, best-of-product reviews, and data broker removal services reviews. Read Windows Report DeleteMe review.

Conclusion

Not all review sites are equal, but those that are good should help you decide which data broker removal service you should go with. For best results, consider reading a few reviews by privacy experts and then see what users have to say, too. 

Table of Contents

If you are wondering what are the websites that list your personal information on the internet, then look no further than data brokers.

Today, there are 4,000 data brokers in existence, with information on billions of people worldwide – you included. 

Luckily, most data brokers honor opt-out requests, meaning you can remove your personal data from these web pages.

The opt-out process differs from one data broker to the next (and may involve you having to share personal information like your name and photo of your driver’s license), but you can use our free opt-out guides for step-by-step instructions. Remember to opt-out regularly: data brokers will relist your information when they gather more of it. 

Alternatively, subscribe to a data broker removal service like DeleteMe to have your personal data removed from these websites continuously. 

Why Are These Websites Dangerous for Your Online Privacy?

If you’ve ever wondered, “Why is my name online,” data brokers are the reason. They share your personally identifiable information, including your date of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, and more, online for anyone to see.

A lot of the time, these websites can even show up on the first page of Google or another search engine. 

Having this kind of information out on the web can put you at risk of doxxing, harassment, scams, identity theft, stalking, and more. 

For example, a scammer could use one of these websites to find information about you and then craft a personalized phishing email that tricks you into revealing your social security number, bank account number, or credit card number. 

10 Websites That List Your Personal Information

Below are ten websites that qualify as people search sites or data brokers. They are well-known for giving third parties a window into your life by listing your personal information on their databases. 

Whitepages

Whitepages is a directory service that provides personal information on people. It lets you look up individuals based on their name, phone number, and/or home address. 

This data broker website collects information from property deeds and public records. Other records Whitepages uses include voter registration data, real estate transactions, and court records.

Here’s the kind of information you can find on Whitepages, according to the Whitepages homepage: 

Whitepages also offers background checks, whereas its Whitepages Business can be used to find business contact info. 

It is estimated that Whitepages has information for over 200 million Americans and 15 million businesses. 

How to opt out: Whitepages Opt Out Guide

Spokeo

Spokeo is an online search directory aggregating personal data from various sources to provide a comprehensive view of individuals. It provides access to over 12 billion public and private records.

Users can search for people on Spokeo by name, email address, phone number, or home address.

This data broker is also used for background checks and identity verification. 

Spokeo gathers data from different sources, including:

• Public records
• Social media
• Surveys
• Mailing lists
• Government databases

How to opt out: Spokeo Opt Out Guide

BeenVerified

BeenVerified is an online data broker that gives users access to people’s personal information. Anyone can use this site to perform reverse lookups using names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, and vehicle information. 

BeenVerified is a place to find data like:

• Contact information (including personal and professional emails, past and present home addresses, and phone numbers).
• Criminal & court records (including criminal records, traffic violations, arrests, and bankruptcies).
• Vehicle records (including specs, values, accident & salvage records, and recalls).
• Property records (including property details, deeds, owner information, and assessments).
• Personal details (including public records, age, job and education history, photos, and relatives). 

BeenVerified also offers monitoring services, which means that individuals can request to receive alerts when information in reports they’re interested in changes. For example, if a person moves homes or sets up a new social networking profile. 

According to the BeenVerified website, an average of 35,000 people perform a search on their database daily. 

How to opt out: BeenVerified Opt Out Guide

Intelius

Intelius is an online information and background check service that consolidates data from various sources to provide detailed reports about individuals. Users can look up individuals by name, phone number, or home address. 

This platform accesses public records, criminal histories, court documents, and real estate transactions to compile reports.

Intelius advertises the following use cases for its services:

Some of the posted information you’ll see here includes:

• Name
• Age
• City
• Residences
• Email Address
• Phone Number
• Family members
• Criminal Records
• Social Media Accounts (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
• Past Bankruptcies
• Licenses & Permits
• Liens

How to opt out: Intelius Opt Out Guide

PeopleFinders

PeopleFinders is a people search site that gathers personal information and makes it publicly available online. 

It sources data from public records, third-party brokers, social media sites, and various online platforms.

Search options on PeopleFinders include by name, phone number, email address, or home address. 

A typical PeopleFinders report will show you the following information: 

• Contact information 
• Criminal records
• Marriage records
• Divorce records
• Birth and death records
• Bankruptcy details
• Property ownership

How to opt out: PeopleFinders Opt Out Guide

TruthFinder

TruthFinder is a data collection website that lets anyone look up people’s private information. Users can search for individuals by name, phone number, home address, or username.

You can view a sample TruthFinder report here.

In general, TruthFinder reports can include data like full name, known aliases, age, education and employment history, possible relatives, possible associates and relationships, phone numbers, email addresses, current and past residences, places of work, criminal and traffic records, potential sex offender information, social media profiles, and more. That’s a lot of information. 

How to opt out: TruthFinder Opt Out Guide 

Radaris

Radaris is another data broker that crawls the web and scrapes personal details. Once they compile the information, the platform creates a public profile for viewing. Users can search for individuals by name, phone number, home address, email address, or company. 

Most of the sensitive information on Radaris is found in public records. They also scrape social media profiles and government databases.

Radaris profiles can include personal info like full name, age, phone number, current home address, work experience, resumes, marriages and divorces, relatives’ names, social media accounts, criminal records, mugshots, photographs, and videos. 

How to opt out: Radaris Opt Out Guide

US Phone Book

US Phone Book is a data broker and free reverse phone number lookup service. 

Some of the reasons US Phone Book says you may want to use its services are to find out who is behind an unknown number calling you, for online dating, to monitor who your kids interact with, and “to catch a cheater.” 

Besides searching for someone’s personal information by their phone number, users can also look someone up based on their home address or name. 

The information available on a typical US Phone Book profile includes:

• Name
• Age
• Current and past home addresses
• Emails
• Current and past phone numbers
• Business records
• Professional licenses 
• Family & associates
• Criminal records
• Social media profiles and photos

How to opt out: US Phone Book Opt Out Guide

FastPeopleSearch

FastPeopleSearch is an online directory that offers free searches about individuals. Searches can be made based on people’s names, phone numbers, or home addresses. There’s also a “Near Me” feature that lets you look for properties – and the people that own them – near you. 

Some of the information FastPeopleSearch reports include are:

• Full name
• Aliases 
• Age
• Home address
• Phone number
• Email addresses
• Property information
• Relatives
• Associates
• Marriage records

How to opt out: FastPeopleSearch Opt Out Guide

Arrests.org

Arrests.org is a data broker platform that posts public information online. 

This website lets you search for someone by their name or their photo. 

The information available includes:

• Arrest information, like full name and date of arrest.
• Personal information like gender.
• Charges
• Other arrests
• Mugshots. 

How to opt out: Arrests.org Opt Out Guide

Other Websites That List Your Personal Information 

The above ten sites are not the only ones that list your personal information. For a complete list, check out our opt-out guides.

Some guides you may be interested include:

• How to remove yourself from People Background Check.   
• How to remove yourself from MyLife.
• How to remove yourself from CheckPeople.com
• How to remove yourself from Instant Checkmate.
• How to remove yourself from Pipl.
• How to remove yourself from Public Data Check.
• How to remove yourself from VeriPages.
• How to remove yourself from ZabaSearch.
• How to remove yourself from Smart Background Checks.
• How to remove yourself from PropertyIQ.
• How to remove yourself from PeopleLooker.

You can also see a list of websites that DeleteMe removes your personal information from.  

Stop Sharing Your Personal Information Online

Opting out of data brokers is important, but so is reducing the amount of information you share online. 

Don’t reveal your personal data online unnecessarily, whether on social media, forums, or a personal blog and take steps to minimize online tracking. If you’re still using Chrome, opt for a browser with better privacy settings, and remember: Incognito mode doesn’t do much. You’re better off getting a virtual private network (VPN) or using the Tor browser to hide your IP address and browsing activity. 

You can also enable the Global Privacy Control (GPC) – Do Not Track’s successor. 

The less data there is about you online, the more privacy you’ll have. 

With the prospect of Federal consumer privacy legislation like the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) increasingly dim in Congress in 2023, the Executive Branch and its agencies have recently suggested more direct measures toward regulating the US data broker marketplace.

During the White House session on August 16, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director announced two specific rule changes under consideration:

• Redefining certain data brokers as “Consumer Reporting Agencies”, which would make them subject to Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCPA) rules restricting data sale only for purposes specified in the act; and 
• Redefining “Credit Header Data” (which are basic descriptive personal identifiable info or PII, typically less-restricted than financial records/credit history themselves) as a “Consumer Report”, reducing the ability of companies to disclose people’s sensitive contact information unless in specific required circumstances.

Calls to regulate credit header data under FCRA have been made for over 20 years by privacy advocates, and recently reiterated by members of congress and consumer rights organizations. 

DeleteMe’s take: The proposed changes to rules would directly impact businesses of the major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, Transunion), as well as a range of industries who rely on credit header data for direct marketing and identity authentication purposes. 

But it would also cut off a major source of sensitive data used by less-scrupulous, less-regulated parts of the data broker landscape: “People Search”, “Private Investigator” and “Background Check Services” companies. Arguments that the changes would harm the ability of institutions to ‘prevent fraud’ is, in our view, one-sided and incomplete. The unregulated PII marketplace has allowed mass identity-based fraud to explode over the last decade, and forms of identity authentication relying on 3rd party PII verification have been in steady decline for years.

Learn more about DeleteMe and our work for privacy and cybersecurity at joindeleteme.com

Table of Contents

Well, what are data brokers? They are organizations that know your phone number, political affiliations, and dating preferences. They also know when you move houses, start a new job, and get a divorce. 

Data brokers are companies that sell your personal information to complete strangers. 

According to estimates from a few years ago, there are at least 4,000 data brokers in operation today. Some well-known data brokers include Equifax, LexisNexis, and Oracle. 

In 2020, Acxiom, one of the largest data brokers, had information on more than 250 million people and about 167 million households in the U.S. These numbers have undoubtedly increased since.

An average data broker possesses about 1,500 data points about a single individual, everything from their name and home address to family member information and net worth. 

It’s surprisingly easy for an individual or organization to buy access to this data.

Several years ago, researcher Joanna Moll bought 1 million online dating profiles for less than $150 from the data broker USDate. The profiles included almost 5 million photos and personal information like email addresses, usernames, sexual orientation, physical characteristics, and even personality traits. 

Speaking to the Financial Times, Moll said that the whole process “was like buying a T-shirt on Amazon, and you can buy it anywhere in the world.” 

The good news is that many data brokers give you the option to opt out of being included in their databases. 

We discuss the exact processes for doing that below. 

But first, what exactly are data brokers, where do they get your data, and what do they know about you? Perhaps most importantly, are they even legal? Read on to find out.

What are Data Brokers?

Data brokers (sometimes also called “information brokers”) are companies that aggregate personally identifiable information from various sources to create individual profiles or listings. 

They then sell these profiles to third parties, including advertisers, marketers, insurance companies, data mining corporations, financial institutions, government agencies, political consultants, etc. 

Some data brokers screen and monitor the individuals or organizations buying data from them. 

For example, they may request to meet or speak with clients or ask them to fill out a credentialing questionnaire. However, few data brokers review how their clients use their products after the transaction is completed. 

According to the Federal Trade Commission, depending on the type of data they collect and sell, data brokers typically fall within one of three categories:

1. People search sites.
2. Marketing data brokers
3. Risk mitigation data brokers.

Let’s take a quick look at each one in turn. 

People search sites

People search sites make it possible for individuals to find and connect with lost friends. 

As long as you know someone’s name (or other personal information, like a phone number or email address), you can quickly find more details about them using a people search site.

Sometimes, you might be able to access that information for free. Other times, you may need to pay a small fee. 

People search sites don’t usually screen or monitor their clients. This means people can use them for more nefarious purposes, like finding information about someone to steal their identity or stalking/doxxing. 

Examples of people search sites include PeopleFinders, Intelius, and Spokeo. 

Marketing data brokers

Marketing data brokers develop detailed consumer profiles to help other companies sell to customers. 

Thanks to these data brokers, businesses can buy information about their customers’ interests, habits, and past purchases for marketing purposes. 

Risk mitigation data brokers

Risk mitigation data brokers help organizations verify identities and detect fraud. 

For example, a lender might use a risk mitigation data broker to ensure that a person looking to open an account with them is indeed who they say they are.  

The Problem with Data Brokers

Data brokers are not all bad. In fact, consumers can benefit from some of the purposes that data brokers collect their information for, like preventing fraud. 

At the same time, data brokers increase certain risks for consumers. They also violate people’s privacy. 

Most individuals are unaware that the personal data they share in their day-to-day lives (for example, when visiting a website, voting, shopping at a grocery store, using a mobile phone, or posting on a forum) is being harvested and sold by third parties for profit. 

“None of these people know that their records have been procured and sold, and that their privacy has been invaded. They did not have the opportunity to consent to this activity.” – Hon. Ed Whitfield.

Although some data brokers claim that the sensitive data they collect, store and sell is anonymized, studies show that de-anonymizing data is scarily easy. 

Due to a lack of regulation, there’s no way to know where our personal data ends up or who uses it. This can lead to individuals being unintentionally harmed because their data is available through data brokers. 

For example, information on a data broker website could lead to someone being rejected for a job or mortgage without them knowing why or understanding how to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Data brokers can’t usually control how the data they share or sell to third parties ends up being used. 

Another risk is that due to the amount of personal data they collect and store, data brokers are likely to get hacked or inadvertently expose people’s personal information. 

This has happened before. Just a few years ago, Social Data, a data broker that scraped public social media profiles of companies, accidentally exposed 235 million social media accounts. 

Acxiom, Epsilon, and Experian have been hacked. 

As the information security professional Daniel Miessler wrote a few years ago, “most people falsely believe that the real danger to their privacy comes from hackers in basements, when it actually comes from big companies with parking lots, coffee budgets, and health benefits for their employees.”

The Impact of the Data Brokerage Industry On Business Cybersecurity

The information on data brokers and people search sites also carries risks for businesses, whether in the form of executive threats or cybersecurity risks.

Executive threats

Due to their position within a company, executives are often targeted by activists, disgruntled ex-employees, unhappy customers, and other bad actors. 

It’s not unusual for executives to be subject to risks like harassment, doxxing, stalking, reputational attacks, and identity theft. 

Whereas in the past, bad actors might have had to go to significant lengths to find out an executive’s email address or where they lived, today, this information is easily findable online. This is thanks to the numerous data brokers and people search sites out there. 

We often find a higher degree of PII exposure for C-level executives (between 15% and 25%) compared to the average employee. 

That being said, other high-profile employees and board members, as well as high-risk professionals (law enforcement, journalists, etc.), are at an increased risk of personalized attacks from malicious individuals, as well. 

Cybersecurity risks

The personal data that exists about employees and executives on the open web can fuel cyber threats like social engineering and make attack techniques like credential stuffing easier. 

For example, if a threat actor can personalize a phishing email to a specific employee, their success rate will be much higher than if they were to send a generic message. 

Learn more: OSINT: how cybercriminals use open source intelligence for social engineering 

We know from ContiLeaks that ransomware groups use data brokers to find targets to spearphish and contacts they can “name drop” within emails to make them seem more believable. 

Similarly, if a hacker knows enough information about an employee, they can more easily guess passwords and security questions for professional and even personal accounts (from which they can leapfrog into corporate networks).

Learn more: The link between weak passwords, data breaches, and data brokers

Having multi-factor authentication (MFA) won’t necessarily keep bad actors out. Many MFA solutions can be circumvented via SIM swap or phishing attacks, as we’ve seen with Uber. 

Who Uses Data Brokers?

It’s not just marketers who want to better tailor their ads or long-lost friends who want to reconnect that use data brokers and people finder sites. 

Other groups and people that use data brokers include:

• Law enforcement agencies
• Educational institutions and financial aid providers
• Employers/recruiters
• Landlords
• Politicians
• Foreign governments/domestic terror organizations
• Identity thieves 
• Insurance agencies
• Credit card companies
• Scammers and other criminals.

Even tech giants like Facebook and Google use data brokers (or at least were data brokers’ customers in the past).

How Do Data Brokers Get Data?

Data brokers use public records, commercial sources, and online tracking data to gather data about individuals. 

Public records include census records, real estate records, DMVs, marriage certificate records, bankruptcy records, business listings, state professional and recreational license records, and voter registration records. 

Commercial sources generally include purchase history from retailers, employment registration, credit information, membership data, loyalty card data, warranty registration, and subscriptions. 

Online tracking data includes user data from social media profiles, web browser cookies, forum posts, mobile apps, web browsing activity, device data, metadata, and IP fingerprints. 

Most of these sources provide only one or two data elements (i.e., a name or phone number) for any individual person. But by piecing them together and guessing the rest, data brokers can build a comprehensive picture of who you are. 

For example, data brokers can guess whether you have any health conditions based on what you buy or search for online.

The majority of data brokers also obtain information from one another.

What Do Data Brokers Know About You?

Data brokers know a lot about you, including your:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Education level
• Occupation
• Net worth
• Weight
• Marital status
• Presence of children
• Political affiliations. 

They may also know your medical history, interests, dating preferences, credit-driven data, real-time location data, Social Security number, and significant life events such as births, divorce, and deaths.

Many data brokers also put people into specific categories. 

For example, if you have a dog, you might be placed within a “Dog Owner” category. If you’re a single man over the age of 66 with a low educational level, you may be classed as “Rural Everlasting.”  

Other categories include “Libertarian Voters,” “Seasonal Donors with Deep Pockets,” and “Conservative Investors with IRA’s and 401s.” 

Learn more: What exactly do data brokers know about you?

Some categories used by data brokers, such as “Cholesterol Focus,” “Erectile Dysfunction Sufferers,” “Rape Sufferers,” and “Police Officers and Troopers at Home,” are incredibly sensitive and have been referred to as highly problematic in testimony to US Congress. 

Other data broker categories characterize individuals’ economic status. For example, the category “American Royalty” is described by Experian as “[w]ealthy, influential and successful couples and families living in prestigious suburbs.’’ 

There’s also “X-tra Needy,” “Meager Metro Means,” and “Small Town Shallow Pockets.”  

Here’s the thing, though: some of the information data brokers host is false. That’s because data broker data sets are made up of two kinds of data:

1. Observed data. Genuine information about an individual. 
2. Inferred data. Information that is deduced from observed data. For example, if you visit a website about treating high cholesterol, a data broker might assume that you suffer from high cholesterol, even though you might have looked up the information for a friend or family member.

Since it’s hard to tell what information in a data broker profile is observed and what data is inferred, this can lead to potentially negative outcomes for individuals. 

Incorrect information on data broker websites can cause real harm to individuals.

Here are some real-world examples: 

In 2011, a man named Thomas Robins took the people search site Spokeo to court because the data they had on him was erroneous. 

Spokeo claimed that Robins was in his 50s, married with children, and working in a professional or technical field. As a result, Robins, who was out of employment at the time, might have missed job opportunities. Robins said Spokeo should have double-checked that the information about him was correct before selling it to third parties.  

In another example, a man known as Jesse T. had his mugshot posted on mugshots.com, a site that publicizes arrest information, even though he was never charged with a crime. 

Unsurprisingly, he found it incredibly difficult to find a job. 

According to the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, just 50-60% of data broker information is accurate. But very few data brokers allow individuals to correct inaccurate information.

Are Data Brokers Legal?

Most people have no idea that the data broker industry exists, let alone that data brokers are selling their personal information. However, that doesn’t make data brokerage illegal. 

Because the information data brokers trade-in is publicly available, they’re not technically breaking the law. 

Some states have passed legislation that restricts data brokers. Both California and Vermont now regulate data brokers and require that they register with the state.  

Vermont’s data broker privacy law (enacted in 2018, the first such law in the country) stipulates that data brokers must maintain minimum data security standards and be more transparent about the type of data they collect.

It also prohibits anyone from buying brokered personal data through fraudulent means or with the goal of fraud, harassment, stalking, or discrimination.  

Similarly, the California Consumer Privacy Act sets down that consumers have the right to know what information is being collected about them and to whom it’s being sold to. Under this law, individuals have the right to opt-out or have their data deleted. The law also prohibits selling data about users under 16 years old.  

Some state laws also prohibit the use of particular information, like voter registration records, for non-election and/or commercial purposes. 

There’s no federal law protecting consumers’ right to control how information about them is being bought and sold. 

However, federal regulations protect certain sensitive data:

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects your conversations with your doctor and your medical records. 
• The federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) forbids the disclosure of motor vehicle and driving record information, except for specific purposes, like insurance, fraud detection, and law enforcement. 

Similarly, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) applies to data brokers that sell consumer data to third parties that use it for particular, enumerated eligibility decisions, including employment and credit. 

In the European Union, there’s the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a data privacy law that affects any organization collecting consumer information.

The GDPR stipulates that consumers must consent before their data is collected. Under the GDPR, consumers also have the right to ask organizations to delete any information organizations might have about them.

How Can You Remove Your Data From Data Brokers?

Some (but not all) data brokers and people search sites allow people to opt out of their databases. 

Opt out of data brokers yourself

You can opt out of data brokers yourself. Just be prepared to invest a lot of time in the process.

Data brokers don’t make opting out easy. To remove your profile from a people finder site or data broker database, you might have to: 

• Fill out a lengthy online form.
• Make your request via the phone.
• Send an email.
• Send information by mail.
• Submit your request several times.  

However, not all sites give users an option to opt out. 

Some data brokers allow you to control your information but not delete it. And those that supposedly give you the option to opt out don’t always honor your request. 

Learn more: Our comprehensive data broker opt-out guide

Some data brokers also request that you submit personally identifiable information before they remove you from their database. 

This can deter some people from requesting an opt-out. That’s particularly true if the service seems sketchy — you don’t want to give them any more personal information than they already have. 

Opting out is not a one-time thing, either. In most cases, you can’t just opt out of a data broker site once. 

To stay off data broker sites, you must repeat the opt-out process every few months. Because most data collection processes are automated, your profile will reappear as soon as the data broker receives information from another source.

When opting out, it’s important that you provide all possible variations of your name. As pointed out by the FTC, if a “Jonathan Doe” doesn’t also submit a removal request for his shortened name “Jon Doe,” then his personal information will still likely be findable via data brokers. 

Another thing to note is that just because you opt out of a data broker doesn’t mean all traces of you will disappear from their database. 

Your name and other information might still appear in another person’s records (for example, your spouse, parent, etc.) For this reason, it’s a good idea to take the time to opt out family members from data broker sources too. 

Professional data broker removal services

If you’re stuck for time but want the peace of mind that comes with having your personal information off of data brokers and people search sites, you can enlist the help of a professional opt-out service. 

There are several data broker removal services to choose from. Some specialize in data broker removal, while others offer data removal as part of a larger offering (for example, online reputation). 

Learn more: Best companies and tools to remove personal information from the internet

When choosing a data broker removal service, check their:

• Service availability. Does the service do removals for individuals based in the US only, or do they also cover other countries? Depending on where you live, this can be very important.
• Data removal scope. What kind of personal information does the service remove from data broker sources? And do they cover the biggest data brokers that show up on the first page of Google?
• Company track record. Has the service been around long? What kind of reviews do they get? What’s their Better Business Bureau rating? 
• Customer support. If you need help quickly, how easy are they to reach? 
• Pricing and plans. How much does the service charge for personal data removal? Do they have family and business plans? 

How to Stop Data Brokers from Collecting and Selling Your Data

Because data brokers collect data from numerous online and offline sources, it is impossible to completely stop them from collecting your personal information. 

That being said, there are certain steps you can take to reduce your digital footprint and minimize the amount of information data brokers can find about you. 

These include:

• Not oversharing on social media, online forums, blogs, and other online spaces. 
• Using a private web browser.
• Ditching Google for a privacy-focused search engine. 
• Uninstalling any apps you don’t actively use on your phone. 
• Thinking twice before you sign up for a loyalty program. 

Data brokers are a threat to our privacy, but we are not totally helpless against them. By opting out of their databases and being mindful of how and where we share our data, we can significantly improve our privacy. 

Corporate data breaches have become so commonplace that they barely register as newsworthy events anymore. The number of records compromised by hacks increased by 141% in 2020, and massive social platforms like Facebook and commercial sites like Amazon and eBay have repeatedly suffered data leaks over the past year with no significant outcry or change in behavior from users. However, even as data breach numbers soar, the average person’s life is generally unaffected by corporate cybersecurity events. This is why data brokers, and *not* data breaches, are America’s largest privacy threat.

The reason why is that hackers targeting corporate institutions, for the most part, aren’t as interested in the contents of exfiltrated data as they are in the financial gain to be made by selling it to third parties or extracting ransom payments from companies with disrupted operations. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean consumers are off the hook whenever their data is compromised. 

The real-world consequences of corporate data insecurity can quickly become apparent to the average internet citizen when they Google their name. Finding your personal information in unexpected places online can be an unwelcome surprise. However, it also provides valuable insight. The biggest threats to personal information privacy don’t necessarily come directly from corporate data breaches but rather from the thriving and mostly legitimate data brokerage industry. Sourcing, collating, and selling our personal information, there is an entire industry of data brokers built on monetizing consumers’ personal lives. 

What Are Data Brokers?

A shadow industry of data brokerage flies underneath most people’s radar. Lesser-known companies like Equifax, Epsilon, and TransUnion have become so efficient at collecting, compiling, and selling personal information that one company alone, Acxiom, can claim to hold multiple pieces of information on 10% of the world’s population, including data like date of birth, ethnicity, marital status, political party, presence of children, household interests, and similar. Other examples of information data brokers may collect include your home address, Social Security number, number of rooms and baths in your home, apparel preferences, and ability to afford products. Let’s be honest — that’s way too much information, and yet that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

With this information assembled into easily accessible profiles, the enormous privacy risk data brokers present to individuals is evident. Whether through selling your information to malicious actors or falling victims to breaches themselves, data brokers directly increase the chances someone may fall victim to threats like doxxing, credit fraud, and even identity theft. Nevertheless, what they do is not only completely legal but constitutes a multi-billion dollar business based on monetizing your data, mostly without your consent or knowledge. 

Your Private Information Is Not Private

To comprehend the issue of data brokers, the first thing web users need to understand is that abuse of user data is a feature rather than a bug in today’s digital world. Tim Berners Lee, the creator of the world wide web, noted this fact in a recent letter where he highlighted the rise of “perverse incentives, where user value is sacrificed, such as ad-based revenue models” as a major threat to our security and freedom online. 

Unfortunately, as noted by Berners Lee, the concept of “privacy” is often at odds with the business models that power most online services. Social media sites are obvious offenders. While social media sites may not sell user data directly (although a UK governmental inquiry revealed that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once suggested charging developers $0.10 a year to access a single user’s data), they nonetheless effectively rent marketers access to their users. Whenever an advertiser uses a service like Facebook, they get access to a vast suite of information about users.

Leveraging the vast trove of information people put online themselves, third-party data brokers often scrape social media directly. However, brokers also buy data from other companies as well as scour publicly accessible databases, like voter records, to collate comprehensive profiles and put people into specific categories. For example, a 2014 Federal Trade Commission investigation discovered that data brokers categorize consumers based on their financial transaction data. Common categories include “Bible Lifestyle,” “Leans Left,” “Plus-size Apparel,” “Novelty Elvis, ”and “Modest Wages.” They then sell this information to pretty much anyone willing to pay for it. Showcasing this personal information business ecosystem’s extent and interconnectedness, Facebook even buys user information from data brokers to better target ads. 

In most instances, the end result for this process for the consumer is a barrage of highly targeted ads. However, in some cases, data broker profiles may be incorrect and lead to severe consequences. Miscategorized by data brokers, individuals can face negative consequences like higher insurance premiums or missed job opportunities, all without ever knowing why. The availability of user profiles on data broker sites also makes it far easier for cybercriminals to scam people and launch attacks on companies. 

Privacy Laws Are Lagging

Against the threat outlined above, current privacy legislation is woefully insufficient. For privacy abusers like social media companies and data brokers, the law is generally on their side.

In the case of social media companies, blatantly abusive data practices are usually written into their terms of service policies that most people don’t read. On the other hand, because most of the data collected by data brokers is publicly available, they are not breaking the law by collecting it. While privacy laws are gaining momentum at the state level, at the moment, there is no federal law governing how people’s private data is collected, bought, and sold, either by social media sites or data brokers.

How to Take Back Control of Your Data

In a world where your information is collected, abused, and monetized multiple times over by both the online services you use as well as by third parties you have never even heard of, privacy can seem like an elusive goal. However, protection is still possible. Here are three quick tips for taking back command of at least a portion of personal information privacy.

1. Use social media wisely

Everything you share online can be scraped and ultimately turned into your monetizable digital identity. It’s impossible to delete this information after the fact — even if you delete a post, picture, or another piece of information from your own social media page or blog, it will still exist somewhere else on the internet. It’s essential to bear this in mind when using social media and keep your accounts private whenever possible. 

2. Use privacy-focused software

Pay attention to how the online tools you use approach user privacy. For example, when it comes to internet browsers, Google Chrome is effectively a tool for harvesting user data. Alternatives such as Brave and Firefox allow the same level of functionality without abusing your data to nearly the same extent. 

3. Delete your name from data brokers

Data brokers are a clear villain in the privacy space. Fortunately, however, it is possible to remove your information from them. Most brokers have an opt-out policy of some kind; however, actually opting out is an intentionally onerous procedure and something that needs to be done continuously to stop your data from reappearing. To automate this process, data broker removal services can coordinate opting out on your behalf. 

Final Thoughts

In a Pew Research survey, 93% of Americans indicated that being in control of who can get information about them is important. Yet while privacy is something that the vast majority of people value, it is something that data brokers continually abuse, almost always without your knowledge. This obviously shouldn’t be the case.

In the long run, a combination of stronger federal legislation, alongside a new approach to how online services are monetized and privacy preferences are communicated, is needed. However, right now, the most powerful tool for privacy-focused individuals is awareness. After that, taking proactive steps like removing your name from data brokers, watching what you do on social media, and choosing privacy-orientated companies is vital. 

Table of Contents

Unhappy about the personal data that shows up when you Google your name? Here’s a guide to understanding where this information comes from and how you can improve your online privacy.

Data brokers are companies that make money collecting and trading personal data belonging to consumers they don’t ever do direct business with. Data brokers sell your personal information to marketers, financial institutions, political consultants, employers and landlords doing background checks, and crucially, anyone else with money to spend. Unfortunately, this means that cybercriminals have easy access to information that can help facilitate cybercrimes like stalking, doxxing, and identity theft. 

Here are a few key sources data brokers use to mine for people’s personal information and how you can limit their activities. 

1. Mobile Apps 

Remember the adage “there is no such thing as a free lunch”? This is certainly true of all the apps we supposedly use for free on our mobile phones. Their hidden cost is your personal information. The apps make money by selling your data or by charging companies for advertisements that target you. 

Every phone is given a unique ID number called “mobile advertising identifier” that is specific to the device you use. Each app has multiple third-party partners that get access to a little bit of your personal data along with this ID number. 

For example, one app may give a data broker your exact location, another app may share your name and surname, and yet another app may reveal your phone number. Data brokers can collate this information to create a very clear picture of who you are, including your interests, family and friends, and even pets. 

The Solution

• Audit app permissions. Don’t give apps access to your location, contacts list, camera, photos, and mic. 
• Always get your apps from the official app store on your phone. But even then, be sure to check the app’s rating and user reviews. 
• Before you download any messaging apps, make sure they have end-to-end encryption. Otherwise, you run the risk that your messages will be read by strangers. 

2. Harvesting or Scraping Social Media Profiles

Data brokers use automated scraping bots to copy your public profile information, including your name, location, phone number, email address, photos, and more. They then connect this information with other data points they have on you. 

Although scraping is against social media networks’ terms of use, data brokers still do it. If they get caught, they sell the data they scraped to other data brokers and disappear before they are faced with legal action.

The solution

• Use Abine Blur masked email service when signing up for a new social media network. Find out how masked emails work in this 1-min video.
• Avoid sharing personally identifiable information (like your birth date, relationship status, and your workplace) and photos publicly. Better yet, make all your social media profiles private and never tag your specific location.
• Don’t accept people you don’t know in real life as friends on social media. 
• Create strong, unique passwords for all your accounts. A password manager, such as the one offered by Abine Blur, can help you keep track of all your login credentials. 
• Stay away from social media networks with poor privacy policies and settings, such as Clubhouse. 

3. Credit Card Transactions 

Data brokers buy anonymized and aggregated credit card transaction information from credit card processing networks. According to Fast Company, Mastercard made $4.1 billion in 2019 from this type of service.

You might be wondering: if transaction data is anonymized, how can data brokers link it back to you? It’s really quite simple:

1. Banks and credit card services use third-party companies for anonymization (or “tokenization”). 
2. These third-party companies assign your credit card a randomly generated ID code (token). 
3. Tokens are not mathematically reversible with a decryption key. However, a combination of a few receipts and social media posts is usually enough to connect your credit card transactions with other personal information. 

In a 2014 investigation, the Federal Trade Commission found that data brokers use credit and debit card transaction data to place consumers into various categories, like “Bible Lifestyle,” “Plus-size Apparel,” and “Modest Wages.”

The solution 

• Use Abine Blur masked cards feature to create a new burner credit card number for every purchase. With a masked card, the token for each of your purchases will be different, which means that data brokers won’t be able to create a financial profile on you. 
• To take it a step further, use Abine Blur masked email service when signing up to e-commerce sites. 

4. Behavioral Tracking (Aka Browser Cookies)

Everywhere you go online, your behavior and activities are tracked via cookies. Cookies are small text files that identify your computer when you visit a particular website. While some cookies are useful (for example, they may record your login information and remember items in your shopping cart), others track your browsing history across the web. 

Data brokers buy your personal information from third parties that observe your web browsing. In some cases, data brokers may also place cookies on consumers’ browsers themselves and then give their clients the option to advertise to those consumers across the web. It’s because of cookies that you keep seeing highly targeted ads everywhere you go on the internet. 

The solution

• Select the “Do Not Track” option on Chrome and Firefox. Instead of “Do Not Track,” Safari offers Intelligent Tracking Prevention to stop cross-site tracking and third-party cookies. 
• Use Abine Blur to block tracking scripts and other tracking technologies.

5. Public Records 

Data brokers collect most of their information from public records. Public records include things like voter registration information, census data, birth certificates, property records, vehicle registration records, marriage licenses, and divorce records. 

Unfortunately, most public records are available to anyone who requests to see them. For this reason, data brokers are not technically breaking any laws when they scrape public records. That being said, some public records are confidential or have eligibility requirements. For example, under certain circumstances, you may be able to seal your divorce records.

The solution

• Check your state laws on who qualifies for Confidentiality Programs (ACP).
• Visit the county clerk’s office and ask what, if any, personal information can be removed, redacted (like your phone number and a part of Social Security Number), and changed (full name to initials). While you’re there, ask which documents can contain your P.O. box instead of your home address.
• Check the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) database to see if your Social Security Number is listed on the records for your property ownership and liens.
• Set up Google Alerts for your name to get updates any time someone posts information about you online. 

Wait — There’s More

Sadly, these aren’t the only sources data brokers harvest their data points from. Other sources include (but are not limited to) periodical subscriptions, loyalty card services, and online polls and surveys. 

While it’s not possible to delete your online and offline footprint entirely, that doesn’t mean that you should tolerate companies you’ve never even heard of amassing huge amounts of data about you. 

In addition to following the advice outlined above, you should also take the time to opt-out of all the major data brokers and people search sites out there. Check out our step-by-step guide on how to do that or subscribe to DeleteMe to have a team of professionals do it for you.

Table of Contents

The data broker industry is somewhat of an anomaly in that they want you to know as little about the industry as possible. Despite being the arbiters of a personal information marketplace worth billions, they want as little publicity as possible, and they make it extremely difficult to remove personal information from Google.

There’s a simple reason for that: What they do tends to make people really uncomfortable. What they do, as their title suggests, is collect, buy, and sell personal information about people. Not just information like your age, general location, basic interests, but also some shockingly personal information as well. And perhaps as unsettling as the information they gather is how they gather it.

Don’t despair, though. You’re not without recourse or options, and fortunately there are ways to remove personal information from Google. That said, here are a few ways data brokers gather your private information and make it public.

Purchases

It’s no surprise that purchases are tracked, which can legitimately provide relevant product or service suggestions based on your past purchases. But it’s not just helping the company you bought a product or service from online. Many websites, including retail outlets and others, will also sell your info to other advertisers, retailers, and data collection or retention entities. That can seem harmless enough—except that most people would probably prefer their history with websites not be shared when those sites involve an illness they suffer from, an addiction, adult purchases, personal debts, or anything else with a stigma attached to it.

Even brick-and-mortar businesses participate in this information marketplace. They will often ask for your email address when you complete a purchase. This is exactly the kind of information that data brokers will pay for.

Third-Party Tracking

As uncomfortable as the thought of a website sharing your preferences, quirks, and browsing history is, those sites often invite friends. A site, particularly big ones that get a lot of traffic, often allow a dozen or more third parties to observe your web browsing. So there’s a good chance that every time you’re on the internet, you have picked up a whole crowd of third parties tracking your movement to record interests, habits, demographic information, and anything else they can learn. These third parties then sell your personal data and information to other data brokers.

Apps

Another sneaky back door through which data brokers can collect your information is app downloads. For instance, two apps with well over a billion downloads combined, Angry Birds and “Brightest Flashlight Free,” are indeed free. That is, unless you count the permission downloading those apps gives to the companies offering them to track everything you do online and sell it to other companies.

And that’s just the legal sneaking. The company responsible for an app called “Path Social” was fined $800,000 by the Federal Trade Commission after they were caught hacking their users’ digital address books and stealing their contacts’ information. It’s good they were caught, but apps are still a very poorly regulated corner of the electronic universe.

The DMV

Believe it or not, even state governments get in on data brokering. Over the last several years, stories have broken from states all over the country outed for selling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of data. Because so much about the legality and ethics of data brokering hasn’t been established, in a number of these states public officials are trying to figure out whether or not selling that information is even legal.

How You Can Protect Yourself

Thankfully, the average consumer is not without options, and there are resources on how to remove personal information from Google. You can close accounts you’re not using, look up the big data brokering firms and request an “opt-out” from their databases, or you can find a reputable and competent company to expedite your private information being removed from those collecting it. These professionals can help keep your personal information private and take the stress of tracking down and removing your personal information off your shoulders.

About DeleteMe

Based out of Boston, DeleteMe is working to make the internet a better, safer place by putting users back in control of their data. Led by consumer protection, privacy, and identity theft experts, they are passionate about offering user-friendly privacy solutions. From password and payment security to removal from Whitepages, DeleteMe is here to help keep your personal information private.

Protect your privacy at joindeleteme.com

Think about how often you interact with the internet throughout the day; shopping, social media, work, if you use the internet at all, you are at risk. While there are companies that remove personal information from Google, it alone is not enough to ford the data mines that exist.  In North America, 95 percent of the population utilizes the internet, a 219 percent growth from the year 2000. Any interaction with the web has the possibility of divulging information about you, and data brokers are lying in wait to buy and sell that data, while you remain entirely unaware.

Your name, address, age, religion, usernames, personal medical history, family medical history, political affiliations, income, sexual orientation, medications you take, ethnicity–are just the tip of the iceberg.  According to former Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill, “Today, the quantity of personal information sucked into the cyber-vortex is growing exponentially. 1.8 trillion gigabytes of data were created in the year 2011 alone – that’s equivalent to every U.S. citizen writing three tweets per minute for almost 27,000 years. And it’s predicted that the total amount of data will double every two years from here on out.”

Once this data is collected, it is bought and sold to advertisers, businesses, even the government, to be used as they will. There is nothing illegal about the buying and selling of your information because there are next to no online privacy laws in the United States.  The lack of regulation helps make data brokering a million-dollar business. The companies we are aware of make hundreds of millions of dollars. 

DeleteMe Can Help with Removal from Whitepages, and others

So, what can you do to protect yourself? 

Short of moving to a deserted island, protecting all your information from data brokers is impossible. They will always be hiding in the woodwork rooting out data. However there are ways to limit the information they can access, examples include:

• Give up your store rewards card; it may give you discounts that encourage you to shop at a certain store. However, it is tracking everything you buy. 
• Disable cookies on your browsers and delete the ones you allow every day
• Log out of social before browsing the web
• Hire a company that trolls for your data and deletes it
• Hire a company that hides your information

About DeleteMe

Based out of Boston, DeleteMe is a privacy company on a mission to make the internet a better, safer environment while putting people back in control of their data. Led by consumer protection, privacy, and identity theft experts, they are passionate about making easy-to-use privacy solutions for everyday people. From removal from whitepages to password and payment security they are here to help you navigate the convoluted thoroughfare that is the world wide web. 

Get protected at www.joindeleteme.com

Table of Contents

Data brokers collect and store personal information on nearly every U.S. consumer. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that a single data broker company has information on 1.4 billion consumer transactions, totaling over 700 billion data points and 3,000 data segments for nearly every American consumer.

What information are data brokers collecting?

You’ve likely heard of companies collecting personal information such as name, address, age, and e-mail. You may also have heard about data brokers collecting information on voting registration, purchasing history, criminal records, or vehicle registration.

However, data brokers can go much further than this.

They also collect information on “life-event triggers,” including marriage, divorce, births, deaths, and even buying a home. They also collect salary information, paystub data, and charitable donations. This information is then sold to companies and marketing agencies to help them target their advertising more effectively. 

For example, a home warranty company could purchase a list of new homeowners to target their home warranty sales or advertisements. Companies pay a lot of money for this information, and there’s a pretty good reason why: By one estimate, a data brokerage division of a company adds more than 290,000 records on new homeowners each month.

These companies don’t just collect information, they use it to make inferences about you and place you into consumer groups. The FTC explains these topics can include assumptions such as “dog owners” or “romance novel readers,” or more sensitive categories such as “interested in diabetes” or “low educational attainment and low net worth.”

The FTC explains that these categories can put consumers at risk without the consumer knowing about it. The report reveals, “While data brokers have a data category for ‘Diabetes Interest’ that a manufacturer of sugar-free products could use to offer product discounts, an insurance company could use that same category to classify a consumer as higher risk.” 

Experts, including the FTC, explain that while there are steps consumers can take to remove personal information from Google, there is very little individuals can do to stop data broker companies from collecting data and selling it for marketing purposes.

According to the FTC: “Broker practices have grown dramatically in breadth and depth, as data brokers have the ability to collect information from more sources, including consumers’ online activities; analyze it through new and emerging algorithms and business models; and store the information indefinitely due to dwindling storage costs. Despite the Commission’s recommendations, lack of transparency and choice remain significant issues in this industry.”

This lack of transparency leaves consumers largely in the dark about what information is being collected and how it is being used. 

DeleteMe is the #1 Service for Removal from Whitepages

That’s where companies like DeleteMe come in. DeleteMe works to remove your personal information from data broker websites, which then reduces your online profile in Google and other search engines. Additionally, if you’re seeking removal from Whitepages and other sites that store your address or phone number, DeleteMe works swiftly to erase your personal information.

About DeleteMe

DeleteMe empowers people to control how their personal information is accessed and shared online. The subscription service removes details like names, addresses, and phone numbers from websites such as PeopleFinders, Spokeo, and DexKnows, in order to help clients remove personal information from Google and aid in removal from Whitepages.
For more information, visit joindeleteme.com