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Has anyone ever used that DeleteMe [1] service the article mentions? It's not very cheap, and I'm wondering the value or if anyone has any first hand 2 cents on

Has anyone ever used that DeleteMe [1] service the article mentions? It's not very cheap, and I'm wondering the value or if anyone has any first hand 2 cents on using it? [1]: https://joindeleteme.com/ https://joindeleteme.com/

icepat 3y ago
> Submit personal information for removal from search engines. This sounds very much like trusting a fox to guard the henhouse. When do they then do with the submitted personal information? Why should we trust that they will behave ethically with it? What happens if, and when, they have a data breach?
- hk__2 3y ago
  > This sounds very much like trusting a fox to guard the henhouse. When do they then do with the submitted personal information? Why should we trust that they will behave ethically with it? What happens if, and when, they have a data breach? They have no incentive to behave incorrectly as all their business is based on trust. https://help.joindeleteme.com/hc/en-us/articles/8171184985235 https://help.joindeleteme.com/hc/en-us/articles/817118498523...
  - j-bos 3y ago
    Trust seems cheap when individuals often just close shop and move on.
  - icepat 3y ago
    Does not factor out data breaches. And "our business is based on trust" also has the caveat of "for now". What if they're bought out?
    - hk__2 3y ago
      > Does not factor out data breaches. And "our business is based on trust" also has the caveat of "for now". What if they're bought out? Then nobody knows. "What if?" works for litterally anything anywhere and nobody can respond to all of them, so I’m not sure what you’re expecting here.
      - icepat 3y ago
        I'm not expecting anything, I'm just pointing out that handing over personal data to have your personal data deleted may not be the most sound idea.
- j-bos 3y ago
  Has anyone collected a list of data brokers to opt out yourself?
lexlash 3y ago
I’d never heard of it but it certainly comes up often in the article. Feels like something DoNotPay will offer soon, if it doesn’t already.
shiftpgdn 3y ago
I had DeleteMe for a year. It was pretty good but for whatever reason "whitepages . com" would continue to publish all of my PII and even DeleteMe couldn't take care of it.
arkadiyt 3y ago
I've been using it for a few years and am a happy customer. However - what deleteme does is remove you from "Spokeo"-type websites, it will do nothing to protect you against the issue in this article, which is people buying your data from the credit bureaus.
- bluetidepro 3y ago
  I think the concept of "Remove yourself from all major data broker websites for 1 year." is what worries me, like do they just resubmit your info once you stop paying? Do I just have to pay for this until forever? haha Or do you think you could get away with paying for a year, then again in like 5-10 years after you cancel the first year?
  - slashdev 3y ago
    They don’t resubmit your data, but they’ll stop actively removing it from websites where it gets published.
    - bluetidepro 3y ago
      I wonder how often or how fast it would get back on there once it stops being removed? Maybe with the typical life events that trigger it? Buying a house, new drivers license, etc. etc.
      - freedomben 3y ago
        Yes exactly. I don't know much about deleteme but I know a decent amount about the aggregation and reselling of data. Any time an event happens with some entity they will sell/contribute your information to a data aggregator which puts it everywhere. So if you buy a house or get a credit card or a loan, your info is back. If you want to be horrified, use a different email address for each service. I have a domain that I configured to forward to me, so for example if I got a loan through Hacker News Home Loans, I'd give them email "hackernewshomeloans@example.com" . Doesn't work for everything, but it is a good eye opener.
haswell 3y ago
I have not used DeleteMe, but I’ve used Optery [0], which does seem to at least reduce my information footprint. Consumer Reports also provides a free service called Permission Slip [1] that auto-submits opt-out requests for a variety of retailers/services as well as data brokers. It is difficult to tell how effective these services are, but if nothing else, I’d prefer to minimize my footprint as much as possible. I don’t think this does much to help with the credit bureaus, though. We desperately need real privacy laws with teeth. - [0] https://www.optery.com/ https://www.optery.com/ - [1] https://www.permissionslipcr.com/ https://www.permissionslipcr.com/
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
  is permission slip available as a service, vs an app? forcing users to install apps, which can harvest much more personal data, seems sketchy to me, especially for a service that's supposed to understand that the user doesn't want that
  - haswell 3y ago
    I’ve only interacted through the app so I’m not sure if there’s a web interface. That said, the fact that this is a service by Consumer Reports carries some weight, and the privacy label in the App Store shows minimal information collected. I haven’t combed through the privacy policy on their website, but the way I see it, I’m not worse off by sharing a few bits of data with CR, and as far as I can tell, they’re not doing obviously nefarious things.
nkotov 3y ago
Not this one but there is a YC W22 company called Optery [1] that does something similar and it works really well. [1]: https://www.optery.com https://www.optery.com
kanary 3y ago
We've written about the need for policy reform in the US. https://www.kanary.com/blog/privacy-protection-through-regulation https://www.kanary.com/blog/privacy-protection-through-regul... And offer a deleteme-like service with broad coverage and an affordable rate for removals and monitoring. We received a grant from YC for our work in 2019. https://www.kanary.com/ https://www.kanary.com/

icepat 3y ago

> Submit personal information for removal from search engines. This sounds very much like trusting a fox to guard the henhouse. When do they then do with the submitted personal information? Why should we trust that they will behave ethically with it? What happens if, and when, they have a data breach?

hk__2 3y ago
> This sounds very much like trusting a fox to guard the henhouse. When do they then do with the submitted personal information? Why should we trust that they will behave ethically with it? What happens if, and when, they have a data breach? They have no incentive to behave incorrectly as all their business is based on trust. https://help.joindeleteme.com/hc/en-us/articles/8171184985235 https://help.joindeleteme.com/hc/en-us/articles/817118498523...
- j-bos 3y ago
  Trust seems cheap when individuals often just close shop and move on.
- icepat 3y ago
  Does not factor out data breaches. And "our business is based on trust" also has the caveat of "for now". What if they're bought out?
  - hk__2 3y ago
    > Does not factor out data breaches. And "our business is based on trust" also has the caveat of "for now". What if they're bought out? Then nobody knows. "What if?" works for litterally anything anywhere and nobody can respond to all of them, so I’m not sure what you’re expecting here.
    - icepat 3y ago
      I'm not expecting anything, I'm just pointing out that handing over personal data to have your personal data deleted may not be the most sound idea.
j-bos 3y ago
Has anyone collected a list of data brokers to opt out yourself?

lexlash 3y ago

I’d never heard of it but it certainly comes up often in the article. Feels like something DoNotPay will offer soon, if it doesn’t already.

shiftpgdn 3y ago

I had DeleteMe for a year. It was pretty good but for whatever reason "whitepages . com" would continue to publish all of my PII and even DeleteMe couldn't take care of it.

arkadiyt 3y ago

I've been using it for a few years and am a happy customer. However - what deleteme does is remove you from "Spokeo"-type websites, it will do nothing to protect you against the issue in this article, which is people buying your data from the credit bureaus.

bluetidepro 3y ago
I think the concept of "Remove yourself from all major data broker websites for 1 year." is what worries me, like do they just resubmit your info once you stop paying? Do I just have to pay for this until forever? haha Or do you think you could get away with paying for a year, then again in like 5-10 years after you cancel the first year?
- slashdev 3y ago
  They don’t resubmit your data, but they’ll stop actively removing it from websites where it gets published.
  - bluetidepro 3y ago
    I wonder how often or how fast it would get back on there once it stops being removed? Maybe with the typical life events that trigger it? Buying a house, new drivers license, etc. etc.
    - freedomben 3y ago
      Yes exactly. I don't know much about deleteme but I know a decent amount about the aggregation and reselling of data. Any time an event happens with some entity they will sell/contribute your information to a data aggregator which puts it everywhere. So if you buy a house or get a credit card or a loan, your info is back. If you want to be horrified, use a different email address for each service. I have a domain that I configured to forward to me, so for example if I got a loan through Hacker News Home Loans, I'd give them email "hackernewshomeloans@example.com" . Doesn't work for everything, but it is a good eye opener.

haswell 3y ago

I have not used DeleteMe, but I’ve used Optery [0], which does seem to at least reduce my information footprint. Consumer Reports also provides a free service called Permission Slip [1] that auto-submits opt-out requests for a variety of retailers/services as well as data brokers. It is difficult to tell how effective these services are, but if nothing else, I’d prefer to minimize my footprint as much as possible. I don’t think this does much to help with the credit bureaus, though. We desperately need real privacy laws with teeth. - [0] https://www.optery.com/ https://www.optery.com/ - [1] https://www.permissionslipcr.com/ https://www.permissionslipcr.com/

ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
is permission slip available as a service, vs an app? forcing users to install apps, which can harvest much more personal data, seems sketchy to me, especially for a service that's supposed to understand that the user doesn't want that
- haswell 3y ago
  I’ve only interacted through the app so I’m not sure if there’s a web interface. That said, the fact that this is a service by Consumer Reports carries some weight, and the privacy label in the App Store shows minimal information collected. I haven’t combed through the privacy policy on their website, but the way I see it, I’m not worse off by sharing a few bits of data with CR, and as far as I can tell, they’re not doing obviously nefarious things.

nkotov 3y ago

Not this one but there is a YC W22 company called Optery [1] that does something similar and it works really well. [1]: https://www.optery.com https://www.optery.com

kanary 3y ago

We've written about the need for policy reform in the US. https://www.kanary.com/blog/privacy-protection-through-regulation https://www.kanary.com/blog/privacy-protection-through-regul... And offer a deleteme-like service with broad coverage and an affordable rate for removals and monitoring. We received a grant from YC for our work in 2019. https://www.kanary.com/ https://www.kanary.com/