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Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

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Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#141

Post by bogomipz »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #73
jameslk wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've considered working on this problem from a business standpoint, but I couldn't figure out a good business model for it. I don't think too many people will pay a monthly fee to have their information removed from these services. My guess is that they would sign up for a month and after their information has been removed, immediately cancel their subscription until they needed to do it again. And a yearly fee seeme…

It's possible that the business could be so successful that everyone uses it, the services selling this information all run out of customers and go out of business, none of them come up with newer and more evil ways to do this, and you run out of potential customers. In which case: mission accomplished , retire on your giant pile of money and bask in the knowledge that you made a far better place. (Avoid scenarios in…

>"the USPS has a detailed process for formally putting a company on notice for mailing someone who has specifically unsubscribed, and that process ends in massive fines for continued mailing to that person."

I am doubting this is enforced in any meaningful way. I don't doubt there is a well-detailed process however the US Post Office's bread and butters seems to be Dell Catalogs and Southwest Airlines credit card offers. This fact is what killed Outbox:

http://www.insidesources.com/outbox-vs-usps-how-the-post-off...

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#142

Post by bogomipz »

jameslk wrote: post #44
JoshTriplett wrote: post #14

If anyone reading this thread is interested: I would pay non-trivial amounts of money on a regular basis for a service that systematically worked to eliminate records like these (and the sources they draw from), as well as chasing down sources of junk mail and the lists they ultimately draw from. The value would depend on effectiveness, and on the degree to which the service clearly reported exactly what they did. Ca…

I've considered working on this problem from a business standpoint, but I couldn't figure out a good business model for it. I don't think too many people will pay a monthly fee to have their information removed from these services. My guess is that they would sign up for a month and after their information has been removed, immediately cancel their subscription until they needed to do it again. And a yearly fee seeme…

>"I don't think too many people will pay a monthly fee to have their information removed from these services."

I would be interested in hearing what are you basing this on? Did you do some market research?

My feeling is that there is money in privacy, people seem to have no problem paying 5 or 10 dollars a month for a VPN provider for instance.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#144

Post by dbg31415 »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #23
jquast wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This service exists, I've used it, can vouch for it. https://www.abine.com/deleteme/landing.php

This Reddit comment suggests DeleteMe doesn't work so well. https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/3q0cfz/thinking_ab...

Can confirm... manually went through and opted out of everything I could find... made me feel shitty because I had to provide photos and ID card photos to do it... less than a year later it was all back again. Hired one of the services to do it the second time around... they got maybe 50% of it... and less than a year again it was all back (note I was still paying the monthly subscription to have it all purged). Worse... I had to tell them what sites I found that they missed and waste time dealing with support issues... and let's be honest neither the companies who put the shit up, or the companies who you pay to take it down, are all that honorable. Extortion, pure and simple.

Wish Google would just kill their site rankings, that would largely make the problem go away. Google is allowed to de-list spam sites... why they haven't classified all this crap as spam yet is beyond me.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#145

Post by blacksmith_tb »

bks wrote: post #139
executive wrote: post #28

You mean data brokers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_broker ) Top US brokers: - Acxiom - Experian - Epsilon - CoreLogic - Datalogix - eBureau - ID Analytics - inome - PeekYou - Rapleaf - Recorded Future Protip: loyalty/reward cards are a gold mine, especially drug store purchase receipt data

Opt out links I found - Acxiom - https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx Experian - http://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/... DataLogix Holdings, Inc. https://www.datalogix.com/privacy/#opt-out-landing Epsilon Data Management, LLC http://www.epsilon.com/consumer-preference-center Equifax, Inc - https://help.equifax.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2/noInterce... Fair Isaac Corporation http://www…

The Epsilon link 404s, but I think this page is where it should have gone: https://www.epsilon.com/en_US/consumer-information/consumer-...

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#146

Post by ccvannorman »

jameslk wrote: post #44
JoshTriplett wrote: post #14

If anyone reading this thread is interested: I would pay non-trivial amounts of money on a regular basis for a service that systematically worked to eliminate records like these (and the sources they draw from), as well as chasing down sources of junk mail and the lists they ultimately draw from. The value would depend on effectiveness, and on the degree to which the service clearly reported exactly what they did. Ca…

I've considered working on this problem from a business standpoint, but I couldn't figure out a good business model for it. I don't think too many people will pay a monthly fee to have their information removed from these services. My guess is that they would sign up for a month and after their information has been removed, immediately cancel their subscription until they needed to do it again. And a yearly fee seeme…

>I don't think too many people will pay a monthly fee to have their information removed from these services.

$5-10 a month right here, and I am not rich (yet). Time is valuable. My offer goes up with assurances/contingencies if my name is still on the lists/I am affected (e.g. LifeLock's $1M backing guarantee).

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#147

Post by blacksmith_tb »

NickBusey wrote: post #38

Small tip: At the grocery store or anywhere else with a rewards account linked to a phone number, rather than signing up for one just use (Your Local Area Code)-867-5309 The number almost always exists and is a valid account. Get the discount, don't get tracked. Thanks, Tommy Tutone.

This has the added advantage of producing some very strange buying-habit data, as you are likely not the only person to have provided 867-5309 / 555-1212.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#148

Post by pjc50 »

samstave wrote: post #112
pandabear187 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can provide all the sources used for the company I used to work for, however that's irrelevant if you as you said wanted to learn how to fish. Any and every company selling data and there are thousands is in fact a source you would need to deal with to be removed from the sites that sell it. If you think this answer isn't specific enough, you're not going to achieve anything by me spoonfeeding you info for one such…

> I can provide all the sources used for the company I used to work for, however that's irrelevant if you as you said wanted to learn how to fish. Personally, I think this should be a requirement of the government: " HERE IS A LIST OF ALL PEOPLE THAT ARE COLECTING AND SELLING YOUR PERSONAL DATA, CLICK THIS BUTTON TO DELETE YOUR RECORDS " sort of thing... it should be a mandated public service of regulation. Then, the…

This is sort of how European data protection is supposed to work, although you have to maintain your own list as there is no central one. And the enforcement is intermittent.

(Data subject requests are a very powerful tool)

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#149

Post by jszymborski »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #14

If anyone reading this thread is interested: I would pay non-trivial amounts of money on a regular basis for a service that systematically worked to eliminate records like these (and the sources they draw from), as well as chasing down sources of junk mail and the lists they ultimately draw from. The value would depend on effectiveness, and on the degree to which the service clearly reported exactly what they did. Ca…

I've been recently:

1) Segregating automated email to some @customdomain.com address (Yandex and Zoho host vanity domains for free)

2) Forward all email @ that domain to a common inbox

3) Sign-up with servicename@customdomain.com (e.g: facebook@customdomain.com)

You no-longer need to unsubscribe using dubious e-mail links, just automatically black-hole emails that come from spammer@customdomain.com

So, far, so good.

EDIT: List formatting

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#150

Post by literallycancer »

mehrdadn wrote: post #107
mikehollinger wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually am running a (year long) experiment. I found a data broker who had my info. They offered a way to "correct" the record, so I added a car that I don't own (who's warranty should be ready for extended warranty offers in a few months) and added many many "off by one" errors like an extra zero on my income, or transposed digits on the size of my house. We'll see where it lands. I personally would also pay for…

> I found a data broker who had my info. How...? Or do you just mean sites like InstanCheckmate themeselves? > They offered a way to "correct" the record, so I added a car that I don't own That's amazing! They didn't need proof? How did you convince them? Is this legal?

Why wouldn't it be? It's not like you are lying on tax forms.
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