First of all, I must say I am shocked and disgusted at the fact that anyone can go on sites like Intelius and find out just about anything about friends, enemies, neighbors, co-workers, the garbage man, etc. There is no such a thing as privacy any more. I think it's horrific and it needs to be stopped!

I notice there are a number of services that offer help in removing your personal info from these intrusive websites. But, the services involve a fee, most of them quite costly. Has anyone here ever used any of these removal services? Do they actually work? Is it worth the investment? Or are these services rip-offs?

From everything I've heard about Intelius, it's a scam.

I'm willing to bet these sites that claim to remove all your info are rip offs as well.

actually intelus helped me locate my daughter's mother.

INDIRECTLY...

it costed a bit, for me it was worth it

JustErin said:

From everything I've heard about Intelius, it's a scam.

I'm willing to bet these sites that claim to remove all your info are rip offs as well.

The first part of this is wrong - I think they get their info from legit sources, businesses and things that have access to your info, stuff that is legally a matter of public record.

The last part, is probably correct. There's no way you can clear yourself from all of these sites for good unless you never work, never rent or own a home, never make a major (or even minor) purchase, never subscribe to magazines, never have utilities like running water and electricity.

Basically if you live a modern life, you make a paper trail that sites like Intelius can pick up and you WILL be listed someplace. It's unavoidable.

Honestly, I don't understand why there isn't more public outrage over this? For 99 cents, any maniac can find out exactly where you live and then come and blow your head off!

[Edited 4/7/12 12:35pm]

kitbradley said:

Honestly, I don't understand why there isn't more public outrage over this? For 99 cents, any maniac can find out exactly where you live and then come and blow your head off!

[Edited 4/7/12 12:35pm]

Well, honestly, it is nothing new. Back in the day, it used to be the phone book that allowed people to find you.

Chris Rock paid a shit load of money to remove his opening pitch at baseball match from the web.

So it can be done if you have Chris Rock money.

It's not cheap.

There's a lot of companies that have sprung up making a lot of claims but I don't know which are legit and how effective they are.

I think Prince got mixed results with WebSheriff, (not to mention a huge backlash). Looks like they failed to deliver what they promised and he probably stopped paying them.

For us regular, non-celeb folk here is an article with some tips...

http://www.squidoo.com/pe...le81859611

I can't understand why more people aren't concerned about this either.

If you own anything that's got title, your personal information is going to be available. I don't think there's anyway around that.

If you want to disappear from the web, I think you have to disappear from the real world - i.e., never do anything in your own name. That's kind of hard when it comes to getting paid.

so there's a chance that pic of me

diggin in my ass is still out there, huh?

If it was only a question of information that people put up of their own free will - such as party pics or stories on Facebook - I wouldn't really have as much of a problem with it, but I've previously worked hard to keep my name off the internet and people can still find out where I live, my age, my financial info, the names of people I know, and a whole lot of other sensitive information anyway!

Heck, I casually googled an orger's real name a while ago and got two different police mug shots of her from traffic violations, plus a bunch off ill-intended comments about her that probably weren't even true. But even today with all the enormous amounts of random, unsolicited info drifting around, people still believe what they read, and the laws against slander have been rendered completely useless.

Even if information-erasing services would work (which I strongly doubt that they do), it would only be a matter of time before the info starts popping up again. So it would just turn into a losing game of online whack-a-mole. The only thing that's worked reasonably well to control my online presence was starting my own website. Since a Google search for my name leads to a page 1 where all the results have to do with my website, that's what grabs people's attention. If I didn't have that, any idiot could write some bullshit about me somewhere and it would be the only thing people would read if they googled my name.

It's a scary new world.

I google my name on a semi-regular basis and if it turns up on any site I haven't signed up for, I demand that it be removed. (I did that with My Life most recently. They must have snagged my info from that old MySpace page I never used. )

There are still some theatrical reviews out there, but those would have been in the papers, too. And they don't contain any personal info, so it's less worrisome.

There's only so much you can do.

kitbradley said:

Honestly, I don't understand why there isn't more public outrage over this? For 99 cents, any maniac can find out exactly where you live and then come and blow your head off!

[Edited 4/7/12 12:35pm]

But this is information it would simply take someone a day or two to track down without using these sites. The information is out there. It can't be eliminated from every server and computer where it may now be sitting, in some cases, unknown to the owner.

People generally aren't at physical risk, so much as identity theft problems.

emile58 said:

Chris Rock paid a shit load of money to remove his opening pitch at baseball match from the web.

So it can be done if you have Chris Rock money.

It's not cheap.

I doubt that. There are sites that store the web automatically into a repository. If someone downloaded onto their home computer, how is someone going to get at it? It it was copied to a CD or DVD how is anyone going to get that copy or even be aware it exists?

You can get it removed from say Youtube, but if it's posted under another title, then no one is looking for it (automated seach programs), but it's still out there.

retina said:

If it was only a question of information that people put up of their own free will - such as party pics or stories on Facebook - I wouldn't really have as much of a problem with it, but I've previously worked hard to keep my name off the internet and people can still find out where I live, my age, my financial info, the names of people I know, and a whole lot of other sensitive information anyway!

Heck, I casually googled an orger's real name a while ago and got two different police mug shots of her from traffic violations, plus a bunch off ill-intended comments about her that probably weren't even true. But even today with all the enormous amounts of random, unsolicited info drifting around, people still believe what they read, and the laws against slander have been rendered completely useless.

Even if information-erasing services would work (which I strongly doubt that they do), it would only be a matter of time before the info starts popping up again. So it would just turn into a losing game of online whack-a-mole. The only thing that's worked reasonably well to control my online presence was starting my own website. Since a Google search for my name leads to a page 1 where all the results have to do with my website, that's what grabs people's attention. If I didn't have that, any idiot could write some bullshit about me somewhere and it would be the only thing people would read if they googled my name.

It's a scary new world.

it has nothin to do with whut you put in there

it's like vampires who see you through the eyes of others

if you can be seen in this world, you are on the internet

every bank machine, buildin you enter and exit

plazas you walk through, major intersections, airports,

bus stops you pass, etc, etc ,etc...

KingBAD said:

retina said:

If it was only a question of information that people put up of their own free will - such as party pics or stories on Facebook - I wouldn't really have as much of a problem with it, but I've previously worked hard to keep my name off the internet and people can still find out where I live, my age, my financial info, the names of people I know, and a whole lot of other sensitive information anyway!

Heck, I casually googled an orger's real name a while ago and got two different police mug shots of her from traffic violations, plus a bunch off ill-intended comments about her that probably weren't even true. But even today with all the enormous amounts of random, unsolicited info drifting around, people still believe what they read, and the laws against slander have been rendered completely useless.

Even if information-erasing services would work (which I strongly doubt that they do), it would only be a matter of time before the info starts popping up again. So it would just turn into a losing game of online whack-a-mole. The only thing that's worked reasonably well to control my online presence was starting my own website. Since a Google search for my name leads to a page 1 where all the results have to do with my website, that's what grabs people's attention. If I didn't have that, any idiot could write some bullshit about me somewhere and it would be the only thing people would read if they googled my name.

It's a scary new world.

it has nothin to do with whut you put in there

it's like vampires who see you through the eyes of others

if you can be seen in this world, you are on the internet

every bank machine, buildin you enter and exit

plazas you walk through, major intersections, airports,

bus stops you pass, etc, etc ,etc...

Actually I just explained why it does matter what you put in there, if by "put in there" you mean put information on the internet. If you put up stuff that you want people to see and thereby dominate the google search results, that's one why of "controlling" your online presence, at least to a certain extent. It's much worse if you let others represent you and your name online.

retina said:

KingBAD said:

it has nothin to do with whut you put in there

it's like vampires who see you through the eyes of others

if you can be seen in this world, you are on the internet

every bank machine, buildin you enter and exit

plazas you walk through, major intersections, airports,

bus stops you pass, etc, etc ,etc...

Actually I just explained why it does matter what you put in there, if by "put in there" you mean put information on the internet. If you put up stuff that you want people to see and thereby dominate the google search results, that's one why of "controlling" your online presence, at least to a certain extent. It's much worse if you let others represent you and your name online.

i said 'see' but let me clarify,

if you are a part of society

your info can be see through the info

of others. 'advertisement' of your info

isn't the only way one can be seen there.

one can be seen through the actions,

histories, dealings of others.

the only hope is to keep the WHY part

to a minimum, WHY would someone want

to find you in there (internet)

KingBAD said:

retina said:

Actually I just explained why it does matter what you put in there, if by "put in there" you mean put information on the internet. If you put up stuff that you want people to see and thereby dominate the google search results, that's one why of "controlling" your online presence, at least to a certain extent. It's much worse if you let others represent you and your name online.

i said 'see' but let me clarify,

if you are a part of society

your info can be see through the info

of others. 'advertisement' of your info

isn't the only way one can be seen there.

one can be seen through the actions,

histories, dealings of others.

the only hope is to keep the WHY part

to a minimum, WHY would someone want

to find you in there (internet)

Again, you seem to fail to see the benefit of what I just described. But that's ok. It works for me either way.

And I disagree that "why" is the only thing you can control. In fact, I'd say that's the aspect you'd be least likely to affect. People will always keep coming up with new reasons to seek info.