{"id":838,"date":"2018-12-13T19:35:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T00:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/blog\/?p=838"},"modified":"2025-02-24T16:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T21:45:06","slug":"how-deleteme-improves-google-search-results-remove-whitepages-intelius-been-verified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joindeleteme.com\/blog\/how-deleteme-improves-google-search-results-remove-whitepages-intelius-been-verified\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Privacy, Practices & Cybersecurity News \u2013 July 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Listings from data broker websites like Whitepages, Spokeo, and Been Verified make it easy for hackers to find your info from just a quick Google search. DeleteMe removes these listings, in turn removing these search results from Google.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Google Yourself! What do you see?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s okay–everyone Googles themselves once in a while. The results you find might be very different from what you\u2019d expect.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably wouldn\u2019t be surprised to find results with links to your social media profiles, or an article about that time your high school cheerleading team won the championship. But you might be shocked at the number of websites offering up your personal information.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a Google results page from when I searched a random name and city:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"been<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Data brokers like Whitepages, Been Verified, Spokeo, and MyLife are posting your information online<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, most of these results are from <\/span>data brokers<\/b><\/a>. Data brokers are corporations that collect huge amounts of <\/span>personally identifiable information (PII)<\/a><\/strong> and package it all together to create \u2018profiles\u2019 or \u2018listings\u2019 with identifying tags. These tags include things like <\/span>birthdays, past and recent addresses, phone numbers, information about relatives, and more.<\/b> (For the full list, see Appendix B of <\/span>this FTC Report<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the kind of information that snoopers, hackers, thieves, and cyber criminals are looking for when they want to commit financial fraud or identity theft. <\/span>Even though you aren\u2019t directly involved, and might not even know you have a \u2018profile\u2019 on this site, these people are able to find and take advantage of your information.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeleteMe removes you from the leading data broker websites like Whitepages, Intelius and Radaris. These are usually the most common Google search results if someone were to Google your name to try to find more information about you, like a hacker who\u2019s looking for their next identity theft victim.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a quick Google search of your name will bring them to a data broker site like MyLife, Been Verified, or Radaris. There, they\u2019ll be able to find tons of free personal information, or pay for a full report with even more data.<\/span> It\u2019s that easy.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a sample listing that somebody might find on <\/span>Been Verified<\/a><\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"been
Screenshots taken by Julianne Subia\/Abine.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Intelius<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is another data broker that with similar listings:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"been
Screenshots taken by Julianne Subia\/Abine.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Finally, here is a third example listing from <\/span>Spokeo<\/a><\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"been
Screenshots taken by Julianne Subia\/Abine.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A lot of this information is available for <\/span>free<\/b> or at a low price – even as low as $0.95. As you can see, it\u2019s easy for <\/span>anybody <\/b>to find your home address, age, contact information, and more from a simple search on one of these websites.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access to this kind of information could make it easy for somebody to steal your identity, phish your credit card information, or even stalk you.<\/b>  Furthermore, because your relatives\u2019 names are listed, they are also at risk.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do data brokers find this information?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Data brokers get this information by crawling the web for publicly available information, and aggregating it into profiles to make it easier to find. This information is typically made public voluntarily via voter records, phone companies, social media, surveys or questionnaires, buying property, registering a vehicle, and other marketing companies. Data brokers put it all in one easy-to-find place. Unfortunately, this is all perfectly legal \u2013 and can be very dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is DeleteMe?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DeleteMe<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is a hands-free subscription service that removes you and your family from data broker websites. Our privacy experts check the leading data broker sites online and perform opt-out requests for you. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n