Security

A loyal reader, Racquel, emailed me recently after dealing with a very angry customer at work. “Last week, she left me a voicemail and said that I was behind all her problems and she was ‘going to find’ where I lived.” 

Scary, right? Even if you’re safe with what you do online, there’s so much public info about us floating around the web. And the worst part is that your personal info is out there for others to snap up completely free.

Racquel had heard me talk about Incogni, a service that removes your personal info from all the sites that exist solely to gather and share your info for their profit. “[Incogni] went to work right away. It’s going to be difficult for her to find my address,” she told me.

I want you to have that safety and protection, too. Let’s take a deeper look at who’s making money by giving away or selling your data online and what can happen to you when they do.

Data-hungry data brokers

Data brokers exist only to collect and sell your personal information, often without your consent. They gather data from public records, your online activities, retail sites and anything else they can find. This can expose you to:

• Profiling: These detailed profiles about you are sold to marketers, advertisers, and even employers or insurance companies.
• Identity theft: With enough information, bad actors can access your financial accounts or create new ones in your name.
• Spam and scams: Your contact info can be sold to telemarketers and scammers. That’s why you get spam calls, emails and text messages at all hours, day or night.
• Loss of privacy: All this data from various sources can paint a very detailed picture of your life. Just knowing it’s out there makes me queasy.

😡 Look, I tried to get myself out of the data brokers’ sites but gave up after three months. It was too frustrating and time-consuming. I decided to try Incogni after seeing an ad about the service, and I was very, very skeptical. I’m not sure how they do it, but Incogni got me out of these data-scraping sites.

Money-hungry people search websites

People-search websites aggregate information from public records such as court documents, voter registrations and property records, along with social media and other online sources. In the wrong hands, this can open you up to:

• Doxxing: That’s when bad guys publish your private info online (like your home address) to purposely make you vulnerable to threats across the web or in your home.
• Stalking and harassment: You don’t have to get doxxed for someone to use your personal info to track your whereabouts or target you for harassment. Stalking can start small, but it’s a nightmare that can last for years.
• Social engineering: Criminals use detailed information to target you with creepy, highly personalized scams that are harder to detect and resist. Think an old high school friend “reconnecting” out of the blue.
• Reputation damage: Outdated or incorrect information, like an arrest record, on people-search websites can drag your name through the mud and cost you opportunities.

Yup, I tried to get my name out of people-search sites. Like a bad rash, a new site pops up at every turn. I never thought it was possible, but Incogni got me out of these sites and put me on suppression lists so these garbage sites can’t put me back in.

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