Personal information removal service

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A personal information removal service is designed to help individuals reduce their digital footprint by removing their private data from the internet, particularly from data brokers and people search websites. [1] These services cater to internet users' concerns over data privacy and data brokers' widespread collection and sale of personal information. [2]

Contents

Background

Data brokers collect and sell people’s personal information, often without the individual's consent. [3] This data includes names, addresses, and browsing habits, which can then be used for targeted advertising and risk assessment or even sold to third parties. [4] Data protection regulations like the GDPR and CCPA allow consumers to make takedown and deletion requests. However, these regulations do not prevent data brokers from initially collecting the data. [5] [6] The proliferation of data brokers has led to an increased demand for services that can help individuals in regaining control of their personal data. [7]

Functionality

Personal information removal services work by identifying and requesting data brokers to delete the personal information of their clients. This process can be manual or fully automated, but it is nevertheless complex because it involves dealing with numerous data brokers, each with different policies and procedures for data removal. [8] [9]

Companies offering personal information removal also face some issues. They struggle to ensure comprehensive data removal as new data brokers emerge and existing ones don’t always comply with removal requests. Most of them are also limited to certain regions or countries. [10]

Related Research Articles

Consumer privacy is information privacy as it relates to the consumers of products and services.

Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data privacy or data protection.

Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Privacy concerns have been articulated from the beginnings of large-scale computer sharing and especially relate to mass surveillance.

A data broker is an individual or company that specializes in collecting personal data or data about people, mostly from public records but sometimes sourced privately, and selling or licensing such information to third parties for a variety of uses. Sources, usually Internet-based since the 1990s, may include census and electoral roll records, social networking sites, court reports and purchase histories. The information from data brokers may be used in background checks used by employers and housing.

A privacy policy is a statement or legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. Personal information can be anything that can be used to identify an individual, not limited to the person's name, address, date of birth, marital status, contact information, ID issue, and expiry date, financial records, credit information, medical history, where one travels, and intentions to acquire goods and services. In the case of a business, it is often a statement that declares a party's policy on how it collects, stores, and releases personal information it collects. It informs the client what specific information is collected, and whether it is kept confidential, shared with partners, or sold to other firms or enterprises. Privacy policies typically represent a broader, more generalized treatment, as opposed to data use statements, which tend to be more detailed and specific.

Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person.

Information privacy, data privacy or data protection laws provide a legal framework on how to obtain, use and store data of natural persons. The various laws around the world describe the rights of natural persons to control who is using its data. This includes usually the right to get details on which data is stored, for what purpose and to request the deletion in case the purpose is not given anymore.

Privacy law is a set of regulations that govern the collection, storage, and utilization of personal information from healthcare, governments, companies, public or private entities, or individuals.

A zombie cookie is a piece of data usually used for tracking users, which is created by a web server while a user is browsing a website, and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's web browser, similar to regular HTTP cookies, but with mechanisms in place to prevent the deletion of the data by the user. Zombie cookies could be stored in multiple locations—since failure to remove all copies of the zombie cookie will make the removal reversible, zombie cookies can be difficult to remove. Since they do not entirely rely on normal cookie protocols, the visitor's web browser may continue to recreate deleted cookies even though the user has opted not to receive cookies.

Do Not Track legislation protects Internet users' right to choose whether or not they want to be tracked by third-party websites. It has been called the online version of "Do Not Call". This type of legislation is supported by privacy advocates and opposed by advertisers and services that use tracking information to personalize web content. Do Not Track (DNT) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt-out of tracking by websites—which includes the collection of data regarding a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts, and the retention, use, or sharing of that data outside its context. Efforts to standardize Do Not Track by the World Wide Web Consortium did not reach their goal and ended in September 2018 due to insufficient deployment and support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General Data Protection Regulation</span> EU regulation on the processing of personal data

The General Data Protection Regulation, abbreviated GDPR, or French RGPD is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and human rights law, in particular Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It also governs the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA. The GDPR's goals are to enhance individuals' control and rights over their personal information and to simplify the regulations for international business. It supersedes the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and, among other things, simplifies the terminology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Hoofnagle</span>

Chris Jay Hoofnagle is an American professor at the University of California, Berkeley who teaches information privacy law, computer crime law, regulation of online privacy, internet law, and seminars on new technology. Hoofnagle has contributed to the privacy literature by writing privacy law legal reviews and conducting research on the privacy preferences of Americans. Notably, his research demonstrates that most Americans prefer not to be targeted online for advertising and despite claims to the contrary, young people care about privacy and take actions to protect it. Hoofnagle has written scholarly articles regarding identity theft, consumer privacy, U.S. and European privacy laws, and privacy policy suggestions.

The right to be forgotten (RTBF) is the right to have private information about a person be removed from Internet searches and other directories in some circumstances. The issue has arisen from desires of individuals to "determine the development of their life in an autonomous way, without being perpetually or periodically stigmatized as a consequence of a specific action performed in the past". The right entitles a person to have data about them deleted so that it can no longer be discovered by third parties, particularly through search engines.

The gathering of personally identifiable information (PII) refers to the collection of public and private personal data that can be used to identify individuals for various purposes, both legal and illegal. PII gathering is often seen as a privacy threat by data owners, while entities such as technology companies, governments, and organizations utilize this data to analyze consumer behavior, political preferences, and personal interests.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state statute intended to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of the state of California in the United States. The bill was passed by the California State Legislature and signed into law by the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, on June 28, 2018, to amend Part 4 of Division 3 of the California Civil Code. Officially called AB-375, the act was introduced by Ed Chau, member of the California State Assembly, and State Senator Robert Hertzberg.

The right of access, also referred to as right to access and (data) subject access, is one of the most fundamental rights in data protection laws around the world. For instance, the United States, Singapore, Brazil, and countries in Europe have all developed laws that regulate access to personal data as privacy protection. The European Union states that: "The right of access occupies a central role in EU data protection law's arsenal of data subject empowerment measures." This right is often implemented as a Subject Access Request (SAR) or Data Subject Access Request (DSAR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Privacy Rights Act</span> Privacy and data protection law in California, U.S.

The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), also known as Proposition 24, is a California ballot proposition that was approved by a majority of voters after appearing on the ballot for the general election on November 3, 2020. This proposition expands California's consumer privacy law and builds upon the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018, which established a foundation for consumer privacy regulations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China</span> Chinese personal information rights law

The Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China referred to as the Personal Information Protection Law or ("PIPL") protecting personal information rights and interests, standardize personal information handling activities, and promote the rational use of personal information. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside of China.

DeleteMe is a privacy service founded in 2010.

The California Delete Act is a state law that provides a one-stop shop deletion mechanism for consumers to direct data brokers to delete their personal information. The law requires data brokers to register with the California Privacy Protection Agency annually beginning January 2024, process deletion requests submitted through the deletion mechanism beginning August 2026, and undergo an independent audit every three years beginning January 2028. It was the first law of its kind to be passed in the United States.

References

  1. McAuliffe, Zachary (2023-12-22). "Data Brokers and Data Deletion Services: What You Need to Know". CNET. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  2. Turner, Erica; Auxier, Brooke; Rainie, Lee; Anderson, Monica; Perrin, Andrew; Kumar, Madhu (2019-11-15). "Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  3. Kroft, Steve (2014-03-09). "The Data Brokers: Selling your personal information - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  4. Walsh, Ray (2022-04-14). "How to Remove Yourself From the Internet in 2023". Comparitech. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  5. "Everything you need to know about the "Right to be forgotten"". GDPR.eu. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  6. Malik, Omer Imran (2021-05-26). "Right to delete under California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)". Securiti. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  7. Buhler, Konstantine (2021-11-18). "The Rising Consumer Demand for Data Privacy and Autonomy". Sequoia Capital Publication. Medium. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  8. "How to Remove Personal Information From Data Broker Sites". McAfee. 2022-08-24. Archived from the original on Feb 27, 2024.
  9. Osborne, Charlie (Dec 8, 2023). "The best services for deleting yourself from the internet in 2024". ZDNET. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
  10. Fadilpašić, Sead (2023-11-16). "What Are Data Removal Services, and What Data Can They Remove?". MUO. Archived from the original on Jan 17, 2024. Retrieved 2023-11-29.