Master List of Data Broker Opt-Out Links
stopdatamining.me
stopdatamining.me
The website uses Google Analytics and does not disclose this in their Privacy Policy which is mandatory[0] under Google's T&C's.
The Policy also includes this gem: "We may, along with our affiliates and marketing partners enhance and/or merge personal information about you with data collected from other sources and use it in direct and/or online marketing and, to the extent permitted by law, individual reference and look-up service programs."[1]
Also, no HTTPS support but if you try anyway they do have a cert for annualmedicalreport.com. No thanks.
Annualmedicalreport is in a related line of work to this site - it's not about medical care but about looking up the information health insurers gather about patients. It has some positive reviews from real news sources, but it also sets off some alarm bells for me. It seems to be eager for your data itself, and has a weird sideline of articles about non-medical consumer reporting that read like sponsored content.
Given all that, I wouldn't be surprised if they were connected to (possibly the creator of) this broker site, and that's why their cert is being served.
None of which actually makes me feel better, and the failure to disclose Analytics certainly isn't encouraging.
Many sites ignore the Google Analytics requirement but I think this one should aim a bit higher, especially with all the legal geniuses involved in writing that privacy page.
Is this a hoax site or are they for real?
The Policy also includes this gem...
(edit: formatting)
EDIT: Also, there exist free SSL certificate providers.
Also, there exist free SSL certificate providers.
In all seriousness, see if you can get a group like the EFF to help you craft a privacy policy that isn't so ridiculous but still protects you.
I understand how you need a privacy policy (with or without attorneys working on the project). I don't understand how you need a policy that says you will use personal information for direct and online marketting, for protection. Couldn't you just not do that, and have a policy that says you won't?
After all, you're tech literate (suggesting income) and privacy aware (suggesting your information may be scarce)!
(I assume most of these groups are more honest than that, if only because data reselling is legal but that wouldn't be.)
They have much more than your SSN already. And your all of your info is for sale.
Use at your own risk. I could find nothing that wasn't self-generated press about this person or company.
I'd consider being either a subscriber or provider of a service like this for a couple bucks a month:
- Auto opt out from all 50
- As these change location, requirements, or metastasize into new brokers, continuously opt out and notify as it happens.
- Auto check and notify of pownd registries for hacks/leaks
- Maybe a throwaway email service to find data abuse/spam
- General protection against data weasels, to the extent possible
Kind of like Lifelock, except useful and not a scam.
- How do I actually know that my customers have been properly opted out? I have opted out of snailmail marketing using these types a forms before and as far as I can tell my request was sucked into a black hole and I continued receiving spam mail from them.
- Some of these companies require a gross amount of information to opt yourself out. Another commenter mentioned transunion requires you to submit your SSN. I wouldn't be comfortable collecting that information and I dont think customers would be comfortable handing it over.
- There also a trust issue, how can you assure users that you won't turn around and sell their complete data to someone else?
On the black hole thing, is there any laws like CANSPAM that compel them to prove they're doing the right thing?
What about testing them by buying lists anonymously and seeing if people are really opted out? This could also be used to generate press and goodwill by sharing who the worst offenders are.
If someone accidentally forgets to ensure the mailing list is cleaned out of people who've opted out, you could still be contacted.
The solution provided here is not scalable - basically every company in the world will have a list of opt outs by the time we're done. There needs to be something done at a higher level but that also comes with its own set of issues.
On my part, I have always asked people what they are going to do with an extract of customer information. Having an anti-spam law also lets me calculate what the costs will be if we get fined.
There's an obvious 'issue'—the poor little companies that want to track to us will have a hard time, because we don't want to be tracked—an administrative issue—there has to be some easy way for just about anybody to query whatever central database—and, perhaps, a security issue—a central database with everyone's contact information could be a desireable target. That's all that I can think of, though; what else do you have in mind?
The issue I thought about was who is going to be the one housing the centralized database. Would it be governments? Private corporations? Mixture of both? It's not clear what's the best option. Not everyone trusts the government to have all that information and not everyone trusts private corporations either.
[1] https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0096-fair-credit-r...
[2] https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-...
Lexis Nexis is a major one and only lets you opt out under unique circumstances that will not apply for most people.
Anyone have good sources on where these companies pull their data from?
I've been in a years-long dispute with Transunion over my credit due to incorrect data they have on my financial history, all because my SSN became tied to another person in their records. No malicious intent was ever found, but it hasn't stopped them from wrecking my credit.
Fake data makes sense in some of these cases, but trying to pollute your records with the credit agencies seems like a really bad idea based on my experience dealing with them.
As commented above, the companies are required by the Fair Credit Report Acting Act abide by the requests. [1]
[1] https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0096-fair-credit-r...
The do-not-call has been fantastically ineffective for me. I imagine this could be the same. It's also possible that all of the companies strictly adhering to the FTC rules (i.e. those on the OP site) constitute a minority of the market, and spammers are getting data from other less scrupulous sources.
But it would have taken you even longer--or more likely would have been impossible for you--if we hadn't collected this information and put all it one place.
I wrote some client code from one of these providers, for a big company, and was allowed to "cache" the fetched information (read: duplicate the records).