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How to Remove Yourself from Data Collection Sites

Janaya Jensen • Oct 30, 2019

There is a fine line between the people we are online and how we are offline. We tend to share data about our personal lives on social media platforms and websites that we do not share with others offline.

Unfortunately, when that information goes online, it is accessible for almost anyone who knows how to get at it.

Today’s social networks are data hoarding machines that have information on everything from your friends, your family, your favourite animal, your dog’s name, your kids’ names and even your political inclinations.

In fact, when you apply for a job, employers only need to look you up your social media presence to see if they should hire you.

A simple immature tweet can make you persona non grata not only for employers but also for your social circles. A Google search that unearths an old conviction can destroy careers and since it is online, it will follow you even if you do get hired.

How Public Records Became Accessible

Public records are not new, but the level of accessibility and the sheer volume of online data collectors and distributors have become a problem. Gone are the days when getting access to public records required an official request and navigating multiple government offices.

Now, anyone with even basic research skills can look up who you voted for and even your contact information.

You can blame data collection sites for this. These websites remove all of the red tape and leg work that used to create a barrier against privacy invasions such as the this one.

With just click of a few keys, anyone can get their hands on your data and they don’t even have to leave their homes to do it. Unfortunately, data hoarding sites are notoriously difficult to deal with since their opt-out process is anything but straightforward.

What is Radaris?

To understand how these sites operate, let’s take data collection site, Radaris.com as an example. It is a prominent public records engine that collects information about people and properties and makes it available for stalkers or anyone who wants to look up information on anyone. The site does this by by centralising all of that data and creating profiles of each subject.

Those profiles can be accessed by anyone who either asks for them or buys them. It is little wonder why so many people are searching for ways to remove themselves from Radaris.

The website uses a range of resources to gather this data so before you can try and opt out of the service, you have to understand how it works first. Like other ‘people directories’ Radaris works on 3 basic principles:

  1. Buying up data from marketing and commercial sources, accumulating it in a single database and selling it as products.

  2. Searching the internet for free content that is indexed by search engines and creating a database that can be searched for them.

  3. Using common internet searches and the ‘deep web’ searches of databases belonging to government and business entities and selling access to them.

Besides selling profiles online, data sites such as Radaris also provides a monitoring service that allows users to receive notifications each time new pieces of information are added to their profile.

However, removing your data from the site is easier said than done. On the other hand, you can ensure the site doesn’t get new data on you by being proactive with your online reputation management.

Public Records and How You Can Protect Yourself Online

As per the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), public and government records have to remain accessible no matter what. These laws allow people to look up information on public officials and criticise their behaviour.

Even though this has a number of benefits, it also gives data hoarding sites such as Radaris leeway to use said data for sale and purchase. Plus, it makes the opt-out process for sites like these incredibly challenging.

If you want to pinpoint where that information is coming from and how to start the removal process, here are some of the sources you should look into:

  • police reports

  • local government reports

  • license registries

  • phone directories (state and local)

  • deeds

  • white pages

  • courts

Data sites such as Radaris use these resources to gain the following information:

  • Phone numbers

  • Addresses

  • Professional histories

  • Property records

  • Social media account information

  • Patent records

  • Profile photos and other pictures

Even though the website makes all of this information available in one place, the question is why does it have to be accessible in the first place? Radaris claims that it is not doing anything wrong since the information it collects are useful for:

  • Locating old acquaintances or lost family members.

  • Checking up on job seekers or people you want to know better.

  • Learn about an online date’s history

  • Monitor your own web presence among others.

The level of control you have on your own online privacy depends on how these information brokers source it. Most use a combination of different methods for data collection so that they can get as much information as possible on a single person to create sellable, comprehensive profiles.

In fact, they sometimes send their own personnel to government offices and courts to collect the information they need for said profiles if the data is not available online yet.

In other words, data brokers do almost whatever it takes to gain access to online and offline public records to get as much information as they can about people, businesses and other entities. Since they are basically not doing anything illegal, they get away with it without facing legal charges.

How to Reduce Your Online Footprint

However, this does not mean that what they are doing isn’t invasive especially when they create profiles into neat little packages to sell them off. You can try and delete yourself from the internet, but your efforts will not yield much in the name of results.

It is virtually impossible to eliminate all traces of your online footprint but the good news is that you can reduce it so that data brokers such as Radaris are unable to find it.

However, keep in mind that by doing this you may negatively affect your ability to get in touch with potential employers and HR personnel.

With that said, here are some ways you can make your online footprint a needle in a haystack:

Deactivate shopping and other web accounts

If you have a shopping account on an online store, that store has your contact information, credit card data and email address in its database. Plus, even though social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may not have your credit card info, they still have a ton of personal information that you posted willingly. All of that information is accessible to people who know how to get to it, store it and sell it to the highest bidders.

While you cannot do much to save the information that has already been stolen or accessed, you can prevent others from taking it by deactivating those accounts. You can find this option in the Security or Privacy section of almost every shopping or social media platform or something similar to them. If a particular account gives you trouble you can always search for ways to delete your account from online sources.  

If you are unable to delete an account, you can still do something about your online privacy. All you need to do is change the info in the account to something that is not even close to your personal info. Fake profiles are not uncommon and can ensure that your private information remains private.

Remove Personal Data from Websites Directly

The first thing you need to do before this is to call your phone company or cell provider and ask them to check if you are listed online. If you are, ask them to remove your name.

If you want to remove a forum post or blog post that you are not particularly proud of, you need to get in touch with the webmaster of those sites. Check out the Contact Us or About Us page of those sites to get their contact address or number.

You can also use the website Whois.com and look for the domain name that you wish to get in touch with. There you will find data on who exactly you should contact to get your issue resolved.

Even if you find the webmasters, it doesn’t mean that they will cooperate. Private website operators are under no obligation (legal or otherwise) to remove any post that is already on their website. But you can make things a bit easier for yourself by asking politely. This can increase your chances of having that information removed.

Remove Outdated Search Results

Outdated search results may be old news but that doesn’t mean that they cannot do some damage to your online reputation. Say there is a webpage that has some information on you that is old and you want to get rid of it.

This can be anything from your old employer’s staff page that still has your data even though you left years ago.

Even if they update the page at your request, a Google search may still bring up the old data even if your name is not anywhere in the link. This is a common issue since the search engine caches old pages on servers.

The good news is that you can submit the URL to Google in the hopes that it will update those servers effectively deleting those cached results. However, there is no guarantee of this happening since the information is cached for a reason. But it is still worth a try if you want to remove as many old mentions of your profile from online sources.

Remove Email Accounts

One of the first things that you need to do is remove all of your email accounts especially if you are desperate. Depending on the account you have, this may take several steps or a couple. The first thing you need to do is sign into the account and then locate the delete, close or deactivate option. Understand that some deleted accounts may remain available for some time so that you can reactivate them if you want to at a future date.

Of course you need to have an email address to complete this process so make sure that you have one that you don’t plan on closing.

Clean Your Computer

Even after you have followed all of the above mentioned tips, you aren’t done yet. After cleaning your online persona, it’s time to clean out your computer.

You will be stunned to find out how much information your browser holds especially when it comes to your search history. So the first thing you need to do when you are cleaning your computer is clean it out.

You need to do this before deleting cookies and other data that your browser may have. While removing data online can be a tricky process, it can be done to the extent that it doesn’t bother you or compromise your future prospects.

The key is to remain patient no matter how frustrating the process gets. You may also have to accept the fact that you may not be able to delete some information at all. But you can do enough to ease your mind.

I hope this helps you with your online footprint, if you need more help and want to engage my business to help you get in touch  here

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