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Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

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Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#101

Post by tilsammans »

ghayes wrote: post #89
ryan-c wrote: post #6

Abine's DeleteMe[1] service will take care of removing you from these sites, though it's not cheap. They will keep re-checking and re-removing. I've been using it for a few years, and it seems to work pretty well. IIRC there was still one site that I had to call and deal with myself. 1. https://www.abine.com/deleteme/

I would also add Safe Shepherd [0]. We remove your information from the standard data brokers, and also give you guides on how to remove yourself from a large universe of sites yourself. Message me if you have any questions. Edit: The service costs $13.95/mo, but you can get started with a 10-day free trial where we'll kick off all of the removals. You can (fully) delete your account at any time if you'd like. [0] ht…

Thanks for adding the price info to your post. Should probably be on the site too. :-) is your service open for non-US people? And will it be useful?

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#102

Post by hackuser »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #54

There are plenty of sources of information where you cannot opt out. If you own property in Massachusetts, I can find it using http://www.masslandrecords.com , you can't opt out of that.

The electricity provider here requires the use of 'smart meters' (that is, if you want to use their electricity). Via smart meters, they can identify what electrical appliances are used in your house and when (and possibly even how you are using them, such as what TV show you are watching), giving them a good picture of everything that goes on in the privacy of your home.[1]

There is no opt-out. They have this information on everyone in the state.

[1] This is not at all a fringe theory. It's been discussed on HN at least a few times.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#103

Post by TallGuyShort »

giarc wrote: post #42
Someone1234 wrote: post #18

The US really needs something akin to the EU's Data Protection Directive[0]. I've seen tons of businesses hide some tiny clause in their T&Cs (page 30, subsection 15, paragraph 11, etc) which allows them to resell your data to whoever will pay. For example the National Geographic Store sold my personal data when I purchased something from them (even with no check-box opt out, etc during checkout), and I've been recei…

I know you can enter email addresses as x+y@example.com where x=your regular email and y=some word/phrase to indicate who might have sold your email. For example, if you register bill+NG@example.com with national geographic, and you find yourself getting to: bill+NG@example.com from spam, you know who sold your info. My question is, do you think companies know this trick and just remove the portion following the "+"?

Most of the time when I try to use this it just doesn't accept the email address. I've wondered if they sincerely don't think that's a valid email address or if they're intentionally thwarting that strategy.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#104

Post by ciupicri »

giarc wrote: post #42
Someone1234 wrote: post #18

The US really needs something akin to the EU's Data Protection Directive[0]. I've seen tons of businesses hide some tiny clause in their T&Cs (page 30, subsection 15, paragraph 11, etc) which allows them to resell your data to whoever will pay. For example the National Geographic Store sold my personal data when I purchased something from them (even with no check-box opt out, etc during checkout), and I've been recei…

I know you can enter email addresses as x+y@example.com where x=your regular email and y=some word/phrase to indicate who might have sold your email. For example, if you register bill+NG@example.com with national geographic, and you find yourself getting to: bill+NG@example.com from spam, you know who sold your info. My question is, do you think companies know this trick and just remove the portion following the "+"?

That doesn't work with Yahoo! Mail.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#105

Post by pasbesoin »

People who can afford to are going to begin hiding behind shell corporations. Houses, other assets, etc. will be corporate-owned, with suitable non-descriptive names and corporate addresses.

In fact, this is already occurring, although a prime driver has been a form of trust that reduces taxes particularly inheritance taxes.

I'm not familiar with what e.g. Hollywood celebrities do, but at a guess many of them are likely also doing something similar.

Need to restrict access? Introduce a layer of indirection.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#106

Post by ilamont »

ci5er wrote: post #95
michaelochurch wrote: post #78

What creeps me out is that there are now salary databases that people can use to see someone's prior salary history, job titles, and (in some cases) details of separation. It shouldn't be legal for those to exist, nor for companies to use them. I actually checked myself in one ("The Work Number") in 2012 and it had an accurate title and salary history, which I hadn't made public. Scary, creepy stuff going on. How the…

> How the fuck are they able to know that? This is a good question, that I'd like to see answered too -- if anyone here knows. On a related (only to me) note: Is there any way that I can set a watcher on your comment to notify me if there is a response to it?

It looks like it's part of Equifax, which also does credit reports -- they already have name, address, social, etc. Not sure how they would get the salary info, though, unless the company or the IRS disclosed it.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#107

Post by legohead »

If any of your personal info is on the internet, it has already been saved where you cannot remove it. This is a personal conundrum I have been trying to wrap my head around, especially as it relates to pictures of my kids I'd like to keep offline (but other people take pictures of them and upload them, and it's too late at that point...)

A company I'm familiar with was attacked by a blackhat. He sent the company owner all his personal information including SSN, address, etc. It scared the owner enough to pay off the blackhat, but he also asked the blackhat how he got his information. The blackhat sent the owner a website that you can go to, pay around $4 in bitcoin, and search for anyone's information.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#108

Post by HNaTTY »

codezero wrote: post #96
giarc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you can enter email addresses as x+y@example.com where x=your regular email and y=some word/phrase to indicate who might have sold your email. For example, if you register bill+NG@example.com with national geographic, and you find yourself getting to: bill+NG@example.com from spam, you know who sold your info. My question is, do you think companies know this trick and just remove the portion following the "+"?

Personally I self host a domain that accepts anything@ and file it into a special inbox. This lets me give real addresses to specific sites and blacklist them as needed.

I hope you're doing anything@subdomain.example.com otherwise you'll get catchall spam.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#109

Post by cthalupa »

hackuser wrote: post #102
cowsandmilk wrote: post #54

There are plenty of sources of information where you cannot opt out. If you own property in Massachusetts, I can find it using http://www.masslandrecords.com , you can't opt out of that.

The electricity provider here requires the use of 'smart meters' (that is, if you want to use their electricity). Via smart meters, they can identify what electrical appliances are used in your house and when (and possibly even how you are using them, such as what TV show you are watching), giving them a good picture of everything that goes on in the privacy of your home.[1] There is no opt-out. They have this inform…

>(and possibly even how you are using them, such as what TV show you are watching)

This seems hard to implement, realistically. I know the theory behind it - they can determine how much power a scene takes to show on a TV. But this is going to fluctuate depending on the brand of TV, the model, and so on. They would need to have data for each scene for each different unique type of TV set, and that just doesn't really seem all that feasible, if you ask me.

Re: Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers

#110

Post by ben010783 »

ci5er wrote: post #95
michaelochurch wrote: post #78

What creeps me out is that there are now salary databases that people can use to see someone's prior salary history, job titles, and (in some cases) details of separation. It shouldn't be legal for those to exist, nor for companies to use them. I actually checked myself in one ("The Work Number") in 2012 and it had an accurate title and salary history, which I hadn't made public. Scary, creepy stuff going on. How the…

> How the fuck are they able to know that? This is a good question, that I'd like to see answered too -- if anyone here knows. On a related (only to me) note: Is there any way that I can set a watcher on your comment to notify me if there is a response to it?

I'm just guessing, but they could be using info that was obtained when a user was trying to get a loan. Typically, your info is sent to multiple lenders so you can get the best rate. Somebody could be collecting the info somewhere along the line.
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