A Public Service Announcement to Help Protect your Privacy
A good friend of mine is an anchor at a local TV station, and he gave me a heads-up several months ago about a story they were working on about data aggregators. He was furious when he found out what one, in particular, was doing and recommended that everyone be sure to opt out of the "service" immediately. He called them "vile excuses for human beings." It ran on their newscast several months ago, and another OP jogged my memory about these creeps. Here's the scoop:
The website is www.spokeo.com. They collect everything they can about you from all public databases (including Facebook and LinkedIn) and make it readily available to anyone who wants it, much of it for free. While all of this info is available on the web, these buggers package it all together in one place. Not cool.
You CAN opt out and remove your listing by going to their page and scrolling down to the bottom to find the "Privacy" link. Click that.
At the top of the Privacy Page, enter your name to see if there is a listing. If your name is not there, DO NOTHING.
If your name is there, scroll down to see the "Remove from Spokeo" section. Type in your name and email. You will receive a reply with a link to confirm your "opt out." The opt out does work; I don't show up in their listings anymore.
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