This is particularly true for journalists who have seen an escalation in attacks online amid increased political polarization. 

In response, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) has partnered with DeleteMe to help protect journalists online. Microsoft’s Democracy Forward Initiative is funding the project with the goal of reducing online exposure of journalists’ personal information and enhancing their risk protection during the coming election year. 

Doxxing – the act of maliciously sharing personal data like phone numbers, home address, and family member detail – poses significant risks for journalists, including criminal identity theft, spoofing, and in-person harassment. 

Unfortunately, doxxing is all too easy when data brokers and other online people search sources make individuals’ personal information commercially accessible. 

Some key facts about journalist risk in 2023-2024:

1. Threats to journalists have been escalating particularly during election cycle years.  
2. Trust in the media has reached record lows and growing numbers consider violence to achieve political goals acceptable.
3. Journalists are highly vulnerable compared to most other professions due to malicious political actors aiming to influence media outcomes.

As part of the collaboration to eliminate risky information from the web, DeleteMe will provide 140 licenses to participating journalists within the INN Network. DeleteMe’s experts continuously search for journalists’ personal information and send opt-out requests on the behalf of its clients. 

In addition, INN will be providing additional discounted or free security and privacy resources to help journalists assess personal risk, manage online harassment, and get emergency assistance in case online harassment escalates. 

INN is a supportive network for over 425 independent news organizations, focusing on nonpartisan and public service journalism. DeleteMe, a leader in personal data protection, has been at the forefront of removing personal data online since 2009, serving a wide range of clients including Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Their combined efforts aim to empower journalists to maintain the integrity of their reporting without fear of threats and harassment. 

For more information, read the full press release here. 

DeleteMe’s mission is to give individuals more control over their privacy, as well as preserving democratic processes by protecting political figures, journalists covering polarizing issues, and others who may be at increased risk of online harassment or doxxing. Our service advocates for your privacy and helps you confront the many organizations that may expose your data, accidentally or deliberately.

Join DeleteMe to see why the top news organizations trust us to help protect their journalists.

This framework for regulating the data broker industry was first proposed in congress in 2022, and was re-introduced in early 2023 in California, who has been leading the way in passage of new consumer data privacy law since 2018.

The core provision of the Delete Act is that it will require all data brokers operating in California to register with the new state privacy agency, and provide a single, universal opt-out mechanism for all CA residents.  

All registered companies will be required to delete and no longer track any information they have on individuals who exercise their rights via the state privacy agency. 

The law will not come into effect overnight: the provisions will not begin to be enforced until July of 2026.

There is always the possibility of “death by amendment” – where between passage and enforcement, the law is eventually watered down.  But we believe this is unlikely because of the strong, and still growing support from California voters for improved data privacy protections.

Today’s passage of the law in CA dramatically increases the likelihood that other states – and potentially Congress, who reintroduced their own version in June – will quickly follow suit, and enact similar standards. This is exactly what has happened with state data privacy laws after California first passed the CCPA. 

The implications for consumers, our data-driven economy, and our consumer privacy industry, are enormous.  

This is a big win for consumer rights

The passage of the Delete Act framework is a huge advance for consumer data privacy and signals continued momentum for stronger data privacy rights across the country.  

Exercising data brokers opt-outs is complex (by design), and laws like the Delete Act will require the industry to simplify and standardize processes, giving both consumers – as well as DeleteMe as a leader in Privacy as a Service – greater ability to protect personal information.

That said, individual state privacy agencies like California’s will remain under-resourced when it comes to monitoring and redressing the vast range of consumer data misuse that happens daily. And its why we strongly believe that the Privacy as a Service industry will continue to play an important role in helping provide transparency and confirmation of compliance to consumers and regulators.

Data broker warnings about economic harms are mostly overblown

The promised negative impacts warned about by the data broker industry are – for the most part – either minor, or simply wrong.  Claims of “increased risk of identity theft” are the most absurd, given the industry’s enablement of a vast expansion of consumer fraud and social engineering over the last decade.  The kinds of ‘knowledge-based authentication’ methods which data brokers pretend still functions as fraud-prevention have long been obsolete.

The law will be a significant blow to the digital advertising industry, as well as a range of data-mining services they rely upon; and it will affect some currently “free” service offerings where “consumer data is the real product”; but these costs are coming after a decade of wild-west abuse of sensitive personal information, and the data broker industry is more than capable of surviving and adapting to a world where consumers have stronger controls over their personal information.

The ‘Privacy as a Service’ industry that DeleteMe pioneered is empowered by this law

Things like Federal “Do Not Call Registry” (which is a comparable legal framework) did not end the robocalls problem for consumers. Similarly, the Delete Act will not end widespread collection and monetization of sensitive personal information.  Regulations are only ever as good as their enforcement mechanisms, and the problem that state privacy agencies are taking on will ultimately require the kind of auditing and active-intervention that the Privacy as a Service industry already does every day. 

Privacy protection for both individuals and executives/employees requires continuous monitoring and diligence.  Data brokers count on this – because the work required to opt out and protect your privacy at every place with your data is too great for 99% of individuals today to deal with. This underscores the need for legislatures to pass privacy protection laws that give voters privacy rights AND which enable Privacy-as-a-Service providers to help make it easy for people to continuously enforce these rights.

Table of Contents

Our running log of where DeleteMe has been featured in the news in 2023. Interviews and quotes where we discuss privacy, cybersecurity, our solution, and everything in between. Most recently DeleteMe has been featured in:

How Publications Can Support Writers and Sources Experiencing Digital Harassment

The Open Notebook | April 4, 2023

How to Remove Yourself From the Internet

TechRadar | March 29, 2023

Rob Shavell (Good Sport) is No Match for Adam’s Paranoia

What the Hack? | March 13, 2023

Your Mental Health Data Is Being Sold—and It’s Legal

Healthline | March 10, 2023

What’s Next for Data Privacy Legislation in the U.S. in 2023?

Retail TouchPoints | March 7, 2023

It’s Scary Easy to Use ChatGPT to Write Phishing Emails

CNET | February 16, 2023

The Skeleton Key To Our Lives: The Risks And Consequences Of Consumer Location Data Tracking

Forbes | February 3, 2023

Tax fraud volume tracks new benefits

Accounting Today | January 31, 2023

Remote Work Scams Target Laid-off Americans With Fake Interviews

The Washington Times | January 27, 2023

Tech Layoffs Shock Young Workers. The Older People? Not So Much.

New York Times | January 20, 2023

Stop Being Tracked Online: How DeleteMe, RemoveMyName, and Other Privacy Management Companies Protect Your Identity

LA Weekly | January 5, 2023

The Easiest—and Absolute Laziest—Ways to Protect Your Personal Security

Slate | January 3, 2023

Employee Privacy And Cybersecurity: Spot The Difference

Forbes | Dec 21, 2022

Cybersecurity company warns of surge in fake promotions, deals this holiday season

3TV/CBS 5 | December 15, 2022

The baddest of the bad Black Friday scams is ready and waiting to sucker-punch consumers

Consumer Affairs | November 23, 2022

Hate the flood of political texts? Here’s what Michigan can and can’t do.

Bridge Michigan | November 16, 2022

VR Tracking Facial Expressions May Be the Next Privacy Nightmare—Here’s Why

LifeWire | October 31, 2022

Worried about identity theft? What to do to minimize your risk

LA Times | October 26, 2022

How the Dobbs abortion ruling reshaped America’s privacy debate, from health to politics and law

Grid.News | October 13, 2022

U.S. midterm election 2022: Journalist safety kit

CPJ | October 11, 2022

8 strange ways employees can (accidentally) expose data

CSO | October 4, 2022

Podcast: Ignoring the dangers of Big Tech will tear America apart

The Spectator | September 13, 2022

Instagram faces $402 million fine for alleged mishandling of children’s data

CSO | September 6, 2022

Why Meta’s metaverse goals should fail

The Drum | September 2, 2022

The Daily Reality Of Modern Privacy Problems

Forbes | August 30, 2022

How people finding websites get your information, what you can do to protect yourself

Scripps Local Media | August 12, 2022

The 5 Best Data Privacy Management Software in 2022: Stop Trackers and Take Control of Your Data

Cloudwards | August 10, 2022

You can choose a new name for yourself. Here’s how

NPR | August 2, 2022

Data privacy: Collect what you need, protect what you collect

CSO | August 1, 2022

Hone Your Online Disappearing Act

The Wall Street Journal | July 23, 2022

No, You Can’t Completely Delete Yourself From the Internet

Esquire | July 25, 2022

Facial recognition advancements under scrutiny: ‘Everyone’s privacy is at risk’

Fox News | June 24, 2022

Privacy as a growing and changing source of business risk

Forbes | Jun 23, 2022

Real win vs. privacy theater: Google’s new personal information removal policy

VentureBeat | May 11, 2022

Employee surveillance or employee trust? Why not both?

BenefitsPro | March 09, 2022

Meta’s latest plans show it’s still missing the point on privacy

VentureBeat | March 02, 2022

In particular, DeleteMe received:

– The 2022 Cybersecurity Excellence Award in the Privacy product/service category – North America

– The 2022 Cybersecurity Excellence Award for Most Innovative Cybersecurity Company – North America

We are grateful to Holger Schulze, CEO of Cybersecurity Insiders, the analysts at Cybersecurity Insiders, and everyone who voted for us in these two categories, especially in a competitive field of entrants (900+) in so many important cybersecurity categories.

Winning an award always provides a good opportunity to reflect on how we got here and where we’re going as a company.  

DeleteMe started in 2009 with a mission to protect individual consumers from the dangers of having their personally identifiable information (PII) available on the open web.

But today, PII is a corporate concern. The last three years have seen a boom in demand for better privacy, driven by emerging information-risk in the business world, and sweeping changes to how people live their lives during the Covid pandemic. A few quick examples we’ve seen:

• A rapid growth of social-engineering-driven cyber threats to businesses;
• A shift by millions of people to working remotely, fueling massive growth in fraud, identity theft, and social threats like doxing and harassment
• A maturing range of technologies affecting privacy and identity (like the proliferation of facial recognition technology, behavioral biometrics, and device fingerprinting).

… personal information-driven risk has never been higher for the private and public sectors.

Because of all of the above, we expect 2022 to be a great year for DeleteMe. Here is a taste of our product roadmap that we think will continue to make DeleteMe the most trusted name in consumer privacy:

• Improvements to the Privacy Center, our central hub for fast, frictionless deployment and easy management of DeleteMe for business
• Continuous updates to the list of data broker sites we remove our Members from  
• A new self-scanning tool, allowing a member to request real-time removals

Again, we’d like to thank the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, the users who voted for us, and all of our customers who’ve been with us for the last 10 years. 2022 is going to be a big year. This award is a great way to get things rolling.