DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING

You’ve Heard the Ads for Data Removal Services — I’m Not Buying It

Scrub Me from the Internet? Sure — Until Tomorrow

I doubt it. Photo by and of author.

I’ve been hearing these ads for data removal services for a while now. They definitely give a good pitch: for anywhere from $8 to $30 a month or more, they promise to contact those nasty data brokers who have scraped your personal information from the internet and — gasp! — are selling it to people who can and will use it to tailor ads aimed right at your heart, expose you to identity theft, make your private life public knowledge, use it for employment background checks, and be used by scammers and robocallers.

No doubt about it, those things all could be true. And, unless you found the offer in your Spam folder, I have little doubt that these services will contact data brokers and ask for your data to be removed. In some places, there are laws that force the data broker to comply.

Sounds like it could be worth it, doesn’t it?

But let’s get real

Not all brokers care about those requests. Heck, even if there are laws in place, can the service prove the broker got the request? Unless it was sent by certified mail, there is no proof. A subpoena could request email logs, but that…