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> How many folks take an active approach to managing their “footprint”? I actively manage my footprint now, but I have to admit that getting started was a bit

> How many folks take an active approach to managing their “footprint”? I actively manage my footprint now, but I have to admit that getting started was a bit overwhelming. It's roughly on-par with switching over to a password manager for someone who was not using one before. It involves a lot of going through your inbox to locate accounts and then navigating a slew of different patterns for how to shut down your account, or at least to scrub information you don't want revealed from those accounts. Once you get started, though, maintenance mode is fairly easy. Those "terms of use update" emails are very handy in picking up accounts you forgot you had and shutting them down. That, plus having a couple of templates handy to copy/paste when you get individualized outreach from sales teams. The hardest part is that the majority of companies seem to have no idea how to comply with requests, which leads me to believe the number of people requesting removal of their data is much, much lower than I would hope or expect. It's generally incompetence, not malice. Or probably more accurately, it can be a complex technical task that requires interdepartmental cooperation to implement a good system, and few companies are jumping up and down to fund expensive or complicated compliance efforts in their sales and marketing teams .

emsixteen 3y ago
> That, plus having a couple of templates handy to copy/paste when you get individualized outreach from sales teams Do you mind elaborating/sharing?
- aesh2Xa1 3y ago
  Not op, but I usually use the web form or an email address provided by the company. An email is great for having a "paper trail." Realistically, though, they either will comply or else there's not much you can do. I include a snippet like this one, which is for paper mail: I'm writing to request that you please remove me from your postal mailings list. I no longer wish to receive your mailings. Please, also, do not rent or sell my name or address to other organizations.
sillystuff 3y ago
> The hardest part is that the majority of companies seem to have no idea how to comply with requests... It's generally incompetence, not malice. After many experiences of broken CCPA compliance I'm beginning to wonder if there is not a strategic component to the widespread incompetence. Last night, I tried a CCPA request against keenan.com that a former employer had, apparently, "shared" my information with several years ago. Keenan.com recently sent out data breach announcements to let us know that they failed to properly secure the personal data they collected/hoarded on us via our [past] employers, and I wanted them to tell me what they potentially disclosed and then delete my data. From the email bounce message, they use Microsoft o356 hosted email, and configured their ccpa contact email address they list on the keenan.com website, "ccpa@assuredpartners.com" to only accept mail from internal senders on their own domain(s). Maybe the IT for keenan.com/assuredpartners.com is a clown show (they did hoard data they no longer needed, and failed to secure the data they collected/hoarded), but it seems unlikely that every company, of the many I've encountered with broken CCPA processes, would be similarly incompetent. Several phone requests to other companies, using the CCPA contact number on their websites were answered by folks who have no idea what the CCPA even is. One of the largest data brokers in the US failed to remove my data following a CCPA request until I contacted the VP of their legal department directly. Most of my requests have either encountered (possibly strategic) incompetence as the above, or malicious compliance, where they make the process as time consuming and annoying as they possibly can. E.g., a web form that requires filling out the entire form repeatedly for each right you wish to exercise under the CCPA. TLDR, maybe evil companies are just being evil?
aqfamnzc 3y ago
Related - Once I switched to using a password manager, I use it as a convenient checklist to go through all my never-used accounts and request deletion once every few years.

emsixteen 3y ago

> That, plus having a couple of templates handy to copy/paste when you get individualized outreach from sales teams Do you mind elaborating/sharing?

aesh2Xa1 3y ago
Not op, but I usually use the web form or an email address provided by the company. An email is great for having a "paper trail." Realistically, though, they either will comply or else there's not much you can do. I include a snippet like this one, which is for paper mail: I'm writing to request that you please remove me from your postal mailings list. I no longer wish to receive your mailings. Please, also, do not rent or sell my name or address to other organizations.

sillystuff 3y ago

> The hardest part is that the majority of companies seem to have no idea how to comply with requests... It's generally incompetence, not malice. After many experiences of broken CCPA compliance I'm beginning to wonder if there is not a strategic component to the widespread incompetence. Last night, I tried a CCPA request against keenan.com that a former employer had, apparently, "shared" my information with several years ago. Keenan.com recently sent out data breach announcements to let us know that they failed to properly secure the personal data they collected/hoarded on us via our [past] employers, and I wanted them to tell me what they potentially disclosed and then delete my data. From the email bounce message, they use Microsoft o356 hosted email, and configured their ccpa contact email address they list on the keenan.com website, "ccpa@assuredpartners.com" to only accept mail from internal senders on their own domain(s). Maybe the IT for keenan.com/assuredpartners.com is a clown show (they did hoard data they no longer needed, and failed to secure the data they collected/hoarded), but it seems unlikely that every company, of the many I've encountered with broken CCPA processes, would be similarly incompetent. Several phone requests to other companies, using the CCPA contact number on their websites were answered by folks who have no idea what the CCPA even is. One of the largest data brokers in the US failed to remove my data following a CCPA request until I contacted the VP of their legal department directly. Most of my requests have either encountered (possibly strategic) incompetence as the above, or malicious compliance, where they make the process as time consuming and annoying as they possibly can. E.g., a web form that requires filling out the entire form repeatedly for each right you wish to exercise under the CCPA. TLDR, maybe evil companies are just being evil?

aqfamnzc 3y ago

Related - Once I switched to using a password manager, I use it as a convenient checklist to go through all my never-used accounts and request deletion once every few years.