Quick reminder: Most old cellphones can still call 911 even without a plan. Federal law requires all cellphones to connect to emergency services, even if they don’t have active service. A 2-year-old in Oklahoma put this to the test by calling for an emergency donut delivery. The dispatcher played along, and the police showed up with Dunkin’ treats.
I wasted 36 hours trying to do it myself
© Fizkes | Dreamstime.com
So many of the calls, emails, messages and DMs I get are about privacy and security. I can’t remember the last time I had a full day where no one asked me some version of “How do I get all this info about me off the internet?”
It’s not just you. It’s me, too. After finding my personal cellphone number available on a free people-search site last year, I made it my mission to scrub everything online about me. There are literally hundreds of companies and sites that collect personal info, and they make it extremely hard to get your data removed. Why? Because they profit from selling your data — and mine.
I called the series Opt-Out Tuesday. We put together articles, newsletters and radio segments promoting it. I shared the steps in my nationally syndicated columns. And yet …
I didn’t make a dent
To be fair, we heard from a ton of people who had success following our instructions and removing their info. In fact, the big people search site networks got so peeved, they changed the steps to remove your data after one of my articles went viral.
I spent 36 hours emailing the scummy sites, filling out forms, making calls and even sending letters by USPS. I gave up when I had no real progress. That’s when I researched services to do this for me. I tried three, and I ultimately picked Incogni.
It took me about 3 minutes
Creating an account was easy, and I was immediately opted out of 27 databases, with 47 more requests sent. Now we’re talking about hundreds of sites I’m opted out of with no extra work on my end.
All you have to do is create an account and then enter your name and address. These sites require this info to remove your data — so you’d do that whether or not you use Incogni. Bonus: You can add up to three addresses and three phone numbers, too, so they can catch all the sneaky records.
Then, you grant Incogni permission to reach out on your behalf. After you finish the setup process, you’ll see a list of sites you’ve been removed from and pending requests.
Here’s a look at sites they target that collect information on Americans. (Get ready to scroll!)
- https://www.33mileradius.com/
- https://www.360mediadirect.com/
- https://www.accudata.com/
- https://www.achcoop.com/
- https://www.addefend.com/en/
- http://adelement.com/
- https://www.advancedbackgroundchecks.com
- http://www.affinityanswers.com
- https://agedleadstore.com/
- https://www.aidentified.com/
- https://alescodata.com/
- https://allantgroup.com/
- https://allpeople.com/
- http://anchorcomputer.com/
- https://anteriad.com/
- https://www.apollo.io/
- https://arkeero.com/
- https://aslmarketing.com/
- http://www.attribits.com
- https://www.backgroundcheckers.net/name/landing
- https://belardiwong.com/
- https://www.blisspointmedia.com/
- https://www.bookyourdata.com/
- http://bridg.com/
- https://www.thebridgecorp.com/
- https://carpe.io/
- https://www.censia.com/
- https://checkpeople.com/
- https://www.checksecrets.com/
- https://www.civisanalytics.com/
- https://www.clustrmaps.com
- https://www.compactlists.com/
- https://completemailinglists.com/
- http://completemedicallists.com/
- https://www.comscore.com/
- https://contacts411.com/
- https://www.convex.com/
- https://www.crosswalknyc.com/
- https://www.crunchbase.com/
- https://cybba.com/
- https://www.cyberbackgroundchecks.com
- https://datastreamgroup.com/
- https://decadata.io/
- https://decisionlinks.com/
- https://academixdirect.com/
- https://www.deluxe.com
- https://demyst.com/
- https://diablomedia.com/
- https://www.dice.com/
- https://digitalmediasolutions.com/
- https://www.digitalsegment.com/
- https://www.dataaxlenonprofit.com/donorbase/
- https://www.dynata.com/
- https://lightcast.io/
- https://www.enformion.com/
- https://www.ermes.ai/
- https://www.equifax.com/
- https://exactag.com/
- http://fetcher.ai/
- https://faraday.ai/
- https://www.fastbackgroundcheck.com
- https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/
- https://fifty.io/
- https://fifty.io/us
- https://www.findem.ai
- https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
- https://www.floridaresidentsdirectory.com
- https://www.focus-usa.com/
- https://www.freepeopledirectory.com
- https://www.fullcontact.com/
- https://www.gadsme.com/
- https://giantpartners.com/
- https://www.healthwisedata.com/
- https://www.hightouch.com
- https://hireez.com/
- https://deepsync.com/
- https://homeownersmarketingservices.com/
- https://id5.io/
- https://idm.us.com
- https://www.idtrue.com
- https://www.infopay.com/
- https://inmarket.com/
- https://www.inmatessearcher.com/name/landing
- http://www.insurancemarketinghub.com
- https://intalytics.com/
- https://intentmacro.com/
- https://kbsynergy.com/
- https://keywordconnects.com/
- https://www.kidslivesafe.com
- https://l2-data.com/
- https://www.lbdigitaldata.com/
- https://www.leadmemedia.com/
- https://leadpost.com/
- https://www.lighthouselist.com/
- https://www.lionsharemarketing.com/
- https://www.listmatch.co/
- http://listsonline.com/
- https://littlebrookmedia.com/
- https://maxmind.com/
- https://mediawallah.com/
- https://www.michiganresidentdatabase.com/
- https://www.milestonemarketingsolutions.com/
- https://www.moodys.com/
- https://www.mugshotlook.com/name/landing
- https://nationalpublicdata.com/
- https://www.northcarolinaresidentdatabase.com/
- https://neighbor.report/
- https://www.nuwber.com
- https://www.officialusa.com/
- https://www.ohioresidentdatabase.com
- https://optimalfusion.com/
- https://outwardmedia.com/
- https://www.pacificeast.com/
- https://www.peekyou.com/
- https://www.peoplesearchnow.com/
- https://www.peoplelooker.com
- https://www.peoplesearch123.com/
- https://www.peoplesearcher.com/name/landing
- https://www.peoplesearchusa.org/
- https://www.personsearchers.com/
- https://pipl.com/
- https://popacta.com/
- https://postie.com/
- https://www.privatenumberchecker.com/
- https://www.privaterecords.net/name/landing
- https://www.privatereports.com/name/landing
- https://www.publicsearcher.com/name/landing
- https://www.purecars.com/
- https://www.quad.com/
- https://www.qualfon.com/
- https://www.realeflow.com
- https://www.realsourcedata.com/
- https://www.redidata.com
- https://remodeling.com/
- https://www.revealname.com/
- https://salesintel.io/
- https://salutarydata.com/
- https://www.sealedrecords.net/name/landing
- https://www.searchbug.com
- https://www.searchpeoplefree.com
- https://www.searchpublicrecords.com
- https://www.secretinfo.org/name/landing
- https://www.semcasting.com/
- https://www.sentilink.com/
- https://sharelocalmedia.com/
- https://www.shopalyst.com/
- http://siteimpact.com/
- https://www.smartbackgroundchecks.com
- https://www.sms-inc.com/
- https://www.sourceit.co/
- https://speedeondata.com/
- https://www.spyfly.com
- https://statara.com/
- https://www.stirista.com/
- https://swordfish.ai/
- https://www.evs7.com/
- https://www.telephonedirectories.us
- https://terminus.com
- https://www.peoplesearcher.com/
- https://truepeoplesearch.com/
- https://www.truthrecord.org/name_search/landing_page
- https://unitedstatesphonebook.com/
- https://www.uplead.com/
- https://www.usdatacorporation.com/
- https://usmarketinggrp.com/
- https://usa-people-search.com/
- https://www.usphonebook.com/
- https://www.veeva.com/services/
- https://www.venpath.net/
- https://www.vericast.com/
- https://versium.com/
- https://www.fourleafdata.com/
- https://www.weinform.org/name_search/landing_page
- https://www.wunderkind.co/
Try it free
Right now, try Incogni free for 30 days. If you’re not completely satisfied, get your money back. Use this link to get 60% off when you sign up. I don’t get any residuals or kickbacks if you buy. I just want to help you stay safe. Good luck out there!
So much data left exposed for anyone to see
© Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.com
Another day, another monumental data breach. Just because they’re getting more common doesn’t mean you can tune it out. In fact, it’s time to get even more serious about your private information and what’s posted online.
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82%
K-12 schools hit by cybercriminals from July 2023 to December 2024. That’s over 9,300 incidents. Most happened when staff fell for phishing scams. But they didn’t just lose data. Some attacks forced schools to close and affected meals and special education services.
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Another health care data breach: WebTPA provides admin services to health benefit plans and insurance companies. Hackers stole the names, contact details, birth and death dates, Social Security numbers and insurance info of 2.4 million people in April 2023. Yes, it happened over a year ago and we’re just hearing about it now. The company’s CEO basically said, “It’s no big deal.” Yeah, not for you.
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