[Phillip Beall]

All,

I had pigeonholed this story because I wanted to make sure and post about it.  Then I got busy…  This Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story Go Delete Yourself From the Internet. Seriously, Here’s How. (April 20, 2025) is by Nicole Nguyen, their technology writer.  I’m pretty sure my eyes bugged out at least once while reading this piece.

Kathy and I subscribe to the WSJ and they provide a “gift” link for their stories.  The link above is a gift link to the story.  In it you will read about Google’s free “Results About You” “tool which shows personal data on people-search sites, including home address and phone number. Personal data is easily available and can expose individuals to identity theft, scams, harassment and doxxing. Services such as DeleteMe and Optery can remove your data, but complete removal is impossible.” (AI generated summary from the article.).

From the story you will also learn that the free Google tool promises to not use your data, it is just providing a service, and I think you will be startled at how much about you is out there.  From the author:

Google updated its “Results About You” tool, and using it has been an eye-opening experience.

It uncovered my home address, phone number and email on so-called people-search websites, along with my birth date and grandma’s name—even though I requested removal from some databases years ago. It regularly sends emails alerting me to more exposed data.

The profiles data brokers create are only getting more detailed.

They now include lists of people’s friends, family members and children, as well as location and vehicle information such as license plate number and car purchase history.

Trying to get your data off the numerous data broker sites is a daunting task, so paid services have been developed.  Some provide burner phone numbers and email addresses for you to use to try and give you tools for future use, minimizing the availability of your personal data.  You will not ever be able to 100% get your information off of the Internet, but with the use of the tools you will learn about from this article you can at least reduce it.

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Phillip Beall (W5EBC)

[Author]

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