What is the general consensus on trusting data removal services with the data you provide them?
I’ve spent 5 years telling myself I’ll go through the long lists of data aggregators and one by one manually send removal requests. But it’s such a massive undertaking. I’d like to finally get it done through one of these services, but my gut tells me it feels wrong.
Has anybody used them and how do you feel about it? Is DeleteMe a good choice?
Trusted to do their job? Personally, I think so, and would go as far as to say the main contenders are not doing anything fishy with your data.
I think the trouble comes in with the fact that they become a high-value target to hackers because of how much information they have on their customers. I’m sure that they take a lot of technical precautions to safeguard user data, but for me personally, the risk is not worth the value proposition.
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Mozilla has one that I’ve heard good things about.
That’s the one I’ve heard bad things about.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/mozilla-ditches-privacy-partner-over-conflict-of-interest
lol, lmao even
I 2nd the DuckDuckGo recommendation.
The way their service works is the MOST private imo. Runs locally and shares minimal data during the takedown request process.
DuckDuckGo gains revenue via advertisements and affiliate programs
DuckDuckGo announced that all map and address-related searches would be powered by Apple Maps
DuckDuckGo had blocked search results for some major pirating websites
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/duckduckgo-privacy-browser-facing-backlash-over-microsoft-trackers
Neither of those links contain information relevant to their privacy pro removal product, which only runs on your local device and is definitely not supported by advertisements.
However, I suppose I can see how you may not trust the brand due to their browser and search engine have integrated ad tracking.
If you use a service and can’t find your own data it probably worked more than not at all
I use aura, but mostly for credit safety and ease of access to freeze/unfreeze my credit report. Got it after the experian hack ordeal. They have a ton of other services, including a data mining record deletion service and a call monitoring service. I would recommend it for pretty much everything I’ve listed. It’s made my life a lot easier, put my mind at ease. I also work a job where my personal info gets put in a lot of hands I basically have no choice but to trust. So this was kind of a necessity for me. Look into aura’s cheapest plan, see if it includes the data mining removal stuff. The extra layer of security for me is worth it, no question, but the added benefits of this, for example, and the spam call blocking just seals the deal in my opinion.
Maybe a non profit/co-op should be started to do this.
Why are you doing this?
If you don’t know why you are trying to get personally identifying information off the internet then you can’t evaluate weather you should trust the third party you’re considering contracting the job to.
If you don’t know why you’re trying to get personally identifying information off the internet then you can’t even evaluate advice people give you about it.