The sale of people’s identity and personal information over the internet is big business. The Federal Trade Commission’s website at www.FTC.gov lists hundreds of data information broker type websites exposing and selling your personal information online. You may be amazed to find that your name, current address, previous addresses, telephone number, date of birth, the street address where you grew up as a child, a childhood nickname that you thought only your close friends and family knew, a “review” of you as if you were a product or business, your mother’s maiden name, and the names and current addresses of immediate family members may be available online. In fact, despite having a U.S. “storefront”, some of the owners of these websites do not even live in this country.
If you are like most people, you will probably find that your personal information is listed in search engine results sponsored by various online information data brokers. You must request the removal of information from the data information broker websites before the search results connected to your personal information can be removed. This is oftentimes a difficult and lengthy process.
Contrary to what most people think, the information data brokers are under no obligation to remove your name and personal information from their databases. Most companies are cooperative, but websites, such as radaris.com, mylife.com, and pipl.com may or may not remove your name, address, and other information per your op-out request; and if they do, it may quickly reappear. Pipl.com crawls the web and amasses data from multiple sources, including posting your recent purchases from Amazon.com, and requires that you remove your data from each source. MyLife.com has been labeled as a “scam” in a class-action lawsuit that claims it tells people “someone” is searching for them; then charges them for “a list of fake names.”
Experts say that all a savvy identity thief needs is a name, current address, and a birth date to get someone’s social security number online these days. Identity thieves regularly scan data information broker websites and surprisingly, even genealogy websites and obituaries, hoping to get as much information as possible on potential victims. There are about a half dozen “legitimate” websites that sell social security numbers (permissible purposes supposedly required) to help prospective landlords or potential employers positively identify people.
There are news reports of many people in recent years, who tried to file their income tax returns only to find out that their identities had been stolen and their tax returns had already been filed. We have to face the fact that the system of online privacy and protection in this country is broken. There is no law that prohibits the use of public information. However, there is the use of public information and the misuse of public information. Congress is supposed to enact legislation to better protect our privacy, but with the current gridlock on Capitol Hill, this is not likely to happen anytime soon. A big step in the right direction would be for elected officials on the national or state level to pass legislation mandating that data information brokers honor op-out requests.
The FTC does not investigate individual complaints, but they do keep track of the type and number of complaints filed against a particular entity. If they get enough complaints, the FTC may take action for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and/or the Federal Trade Commission Act. The good news is that the FTC has successfully sued two information data broker companies in recent years, Spokeo for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) against consumers; and US Search for misrepresenting their “privacy lock” feature to consumers, thus opening the door to further legal action by the FTC against additional information data brokers. Click on the links below for complete details about these two important legal actions.
If you type in the following web address, you will see an account of a court judgment against a major player in the data information business, Spokeo.com, who on June 12, 2012, paid an $800,000 fine to the FTC for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act allegedly marketing information to potential employers and recruiters in violations of the FCRA: http://ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023163/120612spokeocmpt.pdf
If you type in the following web address, you will see a copy of a consent decree on March 25, 2011, in which US Search, a major data information broker, settled with the FTC after charging consumers a $10 fee based on the false pretense that their privacy lock feature could lock up records so that others could not see or buy them for a year: http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023131/110325ussearchcmpt.pdf
Some data information brokers will offer to remove your personal information from their website and other similar websites if you pay a one-time or monthly fee. Of course, they can’t guarantee that your information collected from public sources will not be exposed so you have to keep on paying. It is now recommended that people not use their middle name on public records to make it more difficult for the people search websites to positively identify you. There are reports of Americans being contacted by people overseas, who have all of their personal information, and threaten them with bodily harm if they do not send money.
The FTC advocates providing consumers with meaningful notice about information brokers’ practices, a reasonable means to access and correct consumers’ information, and a reasonable mechanism to opt out of these databases. We need to join the FTC in urging our elected officials to enact meaningful legislation to protect our privacy and security. Contact your state and federal elected officials and let them know how you feel about this important matter. All of our identities are at stake.
— Val Philbrick works in the production department of the Journal Tribune as a pre-press person. She is a member of PETA and the Humane Society of the United States.
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