Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Manually opting out of data brokers' databases (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago by lemmyTXV3742@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Has anyone ever done this by going to the website of a data broker and using their opt out form?

Obviously to do this they ask for information so they know what not to include, but it feels like I'm just giving my data to them or confirming what they already have.

Just wondering what other people think since I haven't heard anyone talk about this yet.

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[–] Old_Jimmy_Twodicks@sh.itjust.works 20 points 7 months ago

About ten years ago, I went through this process with as many data brokers and reporting agencies as possible. I printed documents, made accounts, mailed letters, and jumped through every hoop they set up. Some of the companies only recognized my request for a term of five years, while some were permanent.

I don't get random credit card offers in the mail any more. However, since I started using an email alias service a few years ago, I've found my data making its way back to the data brokers. I'm not in the EU, so I don't think I have much recourse for it. Even so, I think it's worth it to jump through all the hoops. Maybe one day it'll feel more meaningful.

tl;dr: It was cumbersome to do it, and other than a reduction in snail mail spam, I haven't seen much benefit from it. All the same, I'd do it again.