Some Tips for Removal from WhitePages and Other Websites



After hundreds of millions of people were affected by the Cambridge Analytica data fiasco, many find that their personal information is no longer private. Unlike the physical phone books of the past, WhitePages and other websites like Spokeo and Intelius collect personal information available on the internet without permission. Some websites even sell this information to individuals and companies who want phone numbers, email addresses, or physical addresses.

https://joindeleteme.com/

Because the information is technically public, this creates a complicated and confusing situation. How are they gathering this information? Is information removal from WhitePages possible without deleting social media accounts? Who is looking at your private information without your knowledge or control?

How Does Whitepages.com Gather Information?
Phone and utility companies are a source for WhitePages to retrieve contact information attached to personal addresses and phone numbers. Other sources include social media, emails, and any information already available on the internet. While this may seem vague, third-parties routinely collect personal information for a variety of reasons from sources like Facebook and Twitter.

Allowing your personal information to be used for something as innocuous as a personality quiz often, unfortunately, result in your phone number and email being posted publically. This may seem like thorough work for a company to produce personal information for millions of people regularly, but since most of the material is readily available, third-party technology can easily source it without thorough, time-consuming research.

Steps for Removing Information from Whitepages.com
WhitePages posts various bits of personal information, from home addresses to phone numbers, email addresses to occupations. This kind of vulnerability can be uncomfortable or even dangerous for some people and exceptional circumstances. To remove personal information from Google or Yahoo searches, you’ll first need to remove it from White Pages. In the case of WhitePages, there are two types of listings that you may find about yourself: Premium vs. non-premium listings. Here’s how to remove your information from WhitePages:

Premium Listings:
1.   Go to Whitepages.com and search for yourself using your full name, city and state
2.   Right click “View Full Report”, and then copy the link location
4.   Enter your email address, write “Remove My Listing” as the subject and description inside the opt-out form
5.   Paste the link that was copied in step 2
6.   Submit the opt-out form

Non-Premium Listings:
1.   Go to Whitepages.com and search for yourself using your full name, city and state
2.   Right click on “View Details”, and then copy the link location
4.   Paste the link copied in step 2
5.   Click “opt-out”
6.   Click “Remove Me” once the listing appears
7.   Select a reason for removal
8.   Click submit
9.   Enter your phone number, check the box that you affirm you are the person associated with the listing, and click “Call now to verify”
10. You’ll receive an automated call from WhitePages; enter the 4 digit verification code displayed on your screen using your keypad on your phone
          
The Catch to Personally Removing Information
WhitePages is not the only company posting personal information publicly. There are dozens of websites that post and sell information to companies and individuals. It can take hours, if not days, to go through every process to remove or hide this information. And, you often need to create an account with the company using an email address to remove the information at all. Using a service like DeleteMe removes personal information from Google, WhitePages, and any other sites makes your personal information private again without the hassle.

About DeleteMe

DeleteMe by Abine assists people with information removal from Whitepages, Spokeo, Intelius and other websites. This hands-free subscription service allows average people to minimize their online footprint and protect their digital privacy.

For more information, visit Joindeleteme.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Doxxing Is and How to Avoid It

Image
It’s hard to describe to members of the pre-internet generation how different life was before the World Wide Web changed everything. The ease of use and ubiquity of search engines alone represents an indescribable paradigm shift from a time when information on virtually anything you wanted to know about was at your fingertips.  Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the brave, relatively new world of information access has a downside. One of the biggest drawbacks of the information age is that it tends not to be picky about the information that’s shared, including information about you. And once shared, it’s hard to remove personal information from Google that’s aggregated by data brokers and tracked by search engines. Which brings us to the hateful world of “doxxing.” What Is Doxxing? There’s a common warning given to those interacting with strangers on the internet on social media, chat sites, dating sites, and the like: “Be careful, they could be anyone!” That s
Read more

What Do Data Broker Sites Know About Your Health and Wellness?

Image
Your medical records and health data are usually protected. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA , there are strict regulations about how your health information should be handled, and who can access it. Despite this, data broker sites and marketers know more than you would think about your medical history, often using targeted marketing that seems too accurate to not have your medical records on hand. From apps to internet searches, online tests to your wearable health device, your information is tracked and used for marketing. Online Depression Tests Share Your Answers You probably expect your movements across the internet to be tracked by the likes of Google and Facebook, using “cookies” as identifiers. You would assume, however, that health information would be protected against this. Instead, Privacy International found that online depression tests on popular mental health websites were sharing the answers with third parties.
Read more

Think Credit Cards Don’t Mine Personal Information? Think Again

Image
Credit cards make buying anything from groceries to electronics easy, whether it’s online or in-person. You might assume that what you purchased, for how much, and where is information known only to you and your bank or credit card lender. Unfortunately, your information gets shared much more widely than that.  Who Gets Your Info? Obviously, your credit card provider gets information about your purchase. This could be a bank, or it could be a retailer such as Target or Amazon. When Washington Post tech writer Geoffrey A. Fowler bought a banana at Target with this Amazon credit card, he found that the information was also shared with marketers , Google, hedge funds, and possibly more. Mobile wallets and financial apps can capture and use your data. If you slide your card through a point-of-sale machine, such as a Square device, they also receive your information. What Are They Doing with Your Info? Why do they want all of this info? What are they doing with it?
Read more