Keeping your personal information safe online has become a task in itself. For starters, many of the applications and websites collect our data. The type of data collected can range from the search terms you use to your personal information. Also, you don't need to be using an app for your data to be collected: an app running in the background can do the collection as well.
Your data is valuable to marketers. In fact, in the modern era of data analytics, big tech companies are making millions by selling access to user data to businesses. The availability of large and varied user data has given rise to a small industry of 'data brokers'. Data brokers obtain your information from public records and combine them with the information in your social media profiles to create a new profile that they can sell. It's similar to the concept of leads in traditional marketing. Of course, the intent of the seller is not a concern for most. The data brokers will simply sell the information to whoever pays for it.
In the case of the bigger companies, you can opt-out of the data collection fairly easily. But the process may not be that simple with some of the other companies. If you're unsure of the information available about you, then use in data aggregator service like Nuwber to find what's out there about you. Here are some steps you should take to find and remove your personal data from online data brokers and data aggregators.
Contact the companies Directly
Get in touch with the companies and ask them to remove your information from their database. In the case of data aggregators, this can be simple as de-indexing your information. You can also remove your information from the Nuwber database by contacting them. Besides data aggregation services you can also take your new name off of telemarketing lists by getting on the do not call registry and the consumer credit reporting prescreening.
Make your social media information private
Another thing you can do immediately is to go to your social media pages and change settings to private. Every social media platform will have their own policies about private accounts, but the option is available with most of the popular ones like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Taking away your social media information will be a significant move because you will be hiding your likes, dislikes, hobbies sand opinions -- information that can be used to target you in marketing campaigns.
Contacting your credit report agency
Credit reporting agencies such as Experian and Equifax can be a great source of information for data collectors. These agencies maintain your financial information including your debt info. By freezing your credit report, you can stop data miners from accessing your information. Of course, you have to be mindful of the fact that you won't be able to apply for loans if your information is not available for assessment. So, only take this step if you will not be going through a loan application or credit card application process.
Use information removal services
There also several companies that help you remove personal information for a fee. When choosing one of these services, go through the process they follow for information removal. For example, services like DeleteMe find and remove your information every three months and they provide the name of sites from where they remove the information. A standard DeleteMe plan starts at $129 per year.
Opting out yourself
Besides the reporting agencies, doing the process yourself will mainly involve removing yourself from people search databases. You will have to visit each site and follow the removal process outlined there. In some cases, a call will be enough, but some sites may ask for more. Here is a list of the big names in data brokerage and how to remove yourself from their website.
Intelius: The first name that comes to mind is Intelius. Intelius is a network of brokers, including, but not limited to, Classmates, Peoplelookup and USSearch. Search for your information there so you can deindex yourself from the network. They will ask you for your email address and ID as verification. If you find yourself listed on Intelius, fill out the opt-out form on their website to start the process.
Acxiom: Acxiom is another big name in the data broker space. Given the extent of their reach, they likely have at least some information about you. Similar to Intelius, you can use an opt-out form to remove your mailing and email addresses and phone numbers from its database.
PeopleFinders: This is another sizeable broker so do check them as well.
PublicRecords: Part of the Intelius network, PublicRecords asks you to provide your driver's license and other basic info to opt-out.
InstantCheckmate: Unlike some of its competitors, InstantCheckmate has a simple process for removing records.
PeekYou: To remove yourself from their database, PeekYou asks you to locate your profile and provide its ID number (last letters in the URL) to remove yourself.
White Pages: White Pages requires you to find and past your URL on a page and also call them. Also, make sure your information is removed from the basic and premium pages.
Pipl: Pipl has a clear process for removing data and it also provides a how-to guide of the steps you need to follow.
Spokeo: Spokeo also guides you through the opt-out process.
Data collectors are part of a growing industry, and with data becoming more valuable than ever before, it's important that you are proactive in securing your data. To stay secure, make your publicly available social data private and contact data collectors to remove your information.
