4 ms·

The fact most of these sites even have opt-out mechanisms, and that they're apparently effective, is surprising and quite nice. Though, I suspect this became t

• theorique 12y ago
  How trustworthy are those mechanisms though? I'm rather skeptical of the "guarantee" of a business whose model is to aggregate huge amounts of "dirt" and let people pay to suppress it.
• 300bps 12y ago
  The fact most of these sites even have opt-out mechanisms, and that they're apparently effective, My last name is one that fewer than 20 people in the world have. So doxxing protection and name management in general is very important to me. A few years ago I took about a day and had myself removed from everywhere I could find. Far more comprehensive than this article. In the three years since, I've slowly been added back to all of them. I haven't moved, I haven't added or subtracted phone numbers, I've made no life changes. It just seems like these data brokers remove your information when you ask and then for whatever reason just add it back again. One example: whitepages.com. I was removed from there about two years and then suddenly my name and address are back again. That's just one example that leads me to believe the opt-out at these data brokers is "temporarily effective" at best.
  • rl3 12y ago
    Seems like doing it on a persistent basis is required then, regardless. Admittedly it's a sad state of affairs, but it beats nothing.
• thinkling 12y ago
  I only looked at Spokeo, the first site on the list in the article. To opt out, you have to give Spokeo your email address, they send you a link, and you click the link to be delisted. Why does Spokeo make it so easy? The only answer I can think of is that they now have your email address and value that. Draw your own conclusions...
  • ForHackernews 12y ago
    I used a fake email address.