How to remove yourself from internet people search sites

[catleg]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/how-to-remove-yourself-from-people-search-websites/612?pg=2

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/j0enu/how_to_remove_yourself_from_the_background_check/

I am testing this out with BeenVerified.com to see if it really works.

[shark66]

Very interesting.

Do tell, old chap, do tell...

Good luck to us all.

[GoingDown]

I would love to know if this works.

I just did a new pipl.com search of myself and it came up with my correct name and relatives and age, but a very old street address (from when I was a high school kid!) and an old phone number. This is the first time I have ever seen this address listed on this website, so it seems to keep changing over time. I wish I could delete the relatives information and leave everything alone. That old house has been sold many times since I lived there, and no one even living in that old neighborhood knows anything about me.

[BigJohn]

I checked a few of the sites and they have me living one time in Florida.

I never lived in Florida.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I checked a few of the sites and they have me living one time in Florida.

I never lived in Florida.

Hey, Big John, where you been for so long? Maybe I need to go on the Internet to find out? Good to see you. 'Hub

[frogger]

You can probably remove yourself from most of the "public" information on the internet, however that you are not going to remove anything from the private/subscription databases, ie Lexis/Nexis.

[GoingDown]

You can probably remove yourself from most of the "public" information on the internet, however that you are not going to remove anything from the private/subscription databases, ie Lexis/Nexis.

I am curious. Why wouldn't even a private database be subject to privacy opt-out laws?

I hate the idea that there is so much information about me floating around out there.

One thing I would advise people to do is get rid of your landline phone and that phone number. Most of the public databases I have searched for info about me seemed to be tied to old landline phone numbers that I and my relatives have had in the past. The latest one I saw had the old phone number and address of my parents' home when I was in high school. Other searches revealed old phone numbers and addresses from when I had a landline phone at an apartment near A.S.U. when I was attending college. And relative's addresses all seem to be tied to various landline phones they have had through the years.

The other thing to do is get Google Voice (and make a new Google Gmail account with a fake name before you get the new Google Voice phone number so they don't have your real name and never use that account for anything except Google Voice stuff!), and use that number for everything, like when you apply for a Safeway Club Card (to save on the price of groceries). Never give out your cell phone number for anything. Have everything go through Google Voice.

And if you use a cell phone, I would get the pay as you go kind, and I would mess up on the address and name when you activate the phone.

As for social networks, I would stop using them, and deactivate them. If you can't stop using them, then set everything to "Only Me" on Facebook, make everything as private as possible. And watch out for things like Amazon.com. Every review of a product I made was found on pipl.com !!! I deleted all of them, and deleted my old Amazon account, and made a new one with a messed up name, but still close enough that the mailman will still deliver the packages to my home. I use the pre-paid Amazon gift cards that I can buy with cash at the grocery store, and use them to purchase stuff on Amazon, without using a debit card or credit card. And I have set everything to private and have stopped leaving any reviews of any products at all.

Just be careful about everything you put out there. It may come back to haunt you later.

[frogger]

I am curious. Why wouldn't even a private database be subject to privacy opt-out laws?

Just won't ever happen. The private database is used by government, law enforcement, credit reporting agencies, etc. You have absolutely no privacy from this.

The best you can do is limit the amount of information that you place in the public realm.

[hnhlvr]

I would love to know if this works.

I just did a new pipl.com search of myself and it came up with my correct name and relatives and age, but a very old street address (from when I was a high school kid!) and an old phone number. This is the first time I have ever seen this address listed on this website, so it seems to keep changing over time. I wish I could delete the relatives information and leave everything alone. That old house has been sold many times since I lived there, and no one even living in that old neighborhood knows anything about me.

I searched on pipl.com and found multiple addresses for me and my voter info, etc., and also PO boxes I've used. I found a way to remove myself from some of the sites that pipl.com uses and now somehow all my info is wrong. Like, for example, it has one of my correct addresses, but wrong birthdate. Another is it shows a PO box I have, but then a photo of residence I've never seen in my life!

Many states show voter addresses and that really bothers me. I wish I could have that info kept private. I almost decided to unregister myself so people can't look up where I live!

[lillymarlene]

Wow! That is so scary. I try to keep my personal information private, but it's nearly impossible these days. Worst is that spokeo.com site. I was just lead to it from pipl.com. I typed in one of my e-mail addresses, and it came up with my correct name, age, gender and city. I don't even belong to any of the popular social networks. Makes you feel like you live in a goldfish bowl.

[treehugger1]

If you want to see what folks get when they pay for the top dog of information, LexisNexis, go to the site and you can order a copy of your file. By law they must (and will) get a copy to you. You will need to send them a copy of your driver's license showing your address and verifying information, but it all turned out very amusing to me. They, and every other site, has information on me that is only about 10% correct. When I can identify myself on some "people" search site, I am comforted in that all the other people they list that are "possibly tied to me" are people I have never heard of.

I would also suggest that everyone be aware of the fact that searching for yourself only adds information for search engines in the future. If you want information related to protecting yourself from searches, I suggest you do your own research related to "google-hacking." There are many commands that you can use with several different search engines that can totally confuse information related to you. This is not hacking in the sense that it is illegal. It is hacking to protect yourself, or learn to engage various levels of the many search engines on the web and/or operated by various web-crawling companies. You will need to do your own research. The bottom line is that you can put 10's of thousands of stupid and fake pieces of information about you online. The search engines and web-crawlers will pick it up and store it. Always keep in mind that anything that was developed by humans can be destroyed or duped by humans. That's the way the world works, particularly in the age of technology.

[IamOld]

This is because it serve the ruling classes both public and private - in Europe - say Germany - outfits lile pipl etc would be sitting in prison for violating data privacy laws. This could be made to go away very simply - were Congress to pass legislation stating that our OWN data is OWNED by us and cannot be disclosed by anyone without permission, all these databases would have to be purged.

[GoingDown]

If you want to see what folks get when they pay for the top dog of information, LexisNexis, go to the site and you can order a copy of your file. By law they must (and will) get a copy to you. You will need to send them a copy of your driver's license showing your address and verifying information, but it all turned out very amusing to me. They, and every other site, has information on me that is only about 10% correct. When I can identify myself on some "people" search site, I am comforted in that all the other people they list that are "possibly tied to me" are people I have never heard of.

I would also suggest that everyone be aware of the fact that searching for yourself only adds information for search engines in the future. If you want information related to protecting yourself from searches, I suggest you do your own research related to "google-hacking." There are many commands that you can use with several different search engines that can totally confuse information related to you. This is not hacking in the sense that it is illegal. It is hacking to protect yourself, or learn to engage various levels of the many search engines on the web and/or operated by various web-crawling companies. You will need to do your own research. The bottom line is that you can put 10's of thousands of stupid and fake pieces of information about you online. The search engines and web-crawlers will pick it up and store it. Always keep in mind that anything that was developed by humans can be destroyed or duped by humans. That's the way the world works, particularly in the age of technology.

Very interesting!

This seems to be a very good way to thwart them.

[catleg]

That sounds like a good idea TH.
Meanwhile it's been a week+ and no confirmation email back from BeenVerified.com, and my entry is still there.
So either it doesn't work or they're buried from the article promoting this issue.

[discouraged]

Wow - I never even thought to look at these things. Thanks to all - I can see where I have work to do to get my info off these sites, whichever ones I can.