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Standards to Protect Personal Information
To help keep your data private, there are some standards you should incorporate into your life. Some of these privacy standards include not downloading applications you don’t need. For instance, if you really don’t need a fitness application and can instead keep track of your calories another way, do that, alternatively, use an alias name by creating a new email address. Any way you can avoid having data brokers track your weight, height, date of birth, weight loss goals, potential health issues, well, you get the point, any way you can keep your personal data private is a step in the right direction. Apps and social media essentially track everything you enter into their database. This information is then sold to the highest bidder. To have data that has been added online such as addresses, names, and phone numbers removed takes a great amount of effort and time. Many people do not want to deal with the work involved to get rid of information that should never have been added in the first place. Many people end up turning to data removal companies to get specific personal data off the internet. For instance if your home address was somehow added to a website, they can help get rid of it. Companies that specialize in data removal can take care of these issues much faster than an individual can on their own.
Even though some data brokers, which number in the hundreds, may have “opt-out” clauses, they are often complicated and only apply to certain specifications. In other words, these companies have bought and stored data on you for years, from many various sources, and keep track of 60%+ of the population. They do not have to delete or divulge what information they have about you–to you–unless there is “just cause.” They only have to remove data when they are given a court order stating that the data they have can cause imminent physical danger to a law enforcement officer or government employee, or a civilian who has a restraining order that specifically protects them from danger or harm should a stalker have access to the information they have. These are the only circumstances that will make companies like LexisNexis, Intelius, Inc., TransUnion Corp., DataLogix and other data brokers like them to back off, even though the data they have is yours and they technically have no right to use it for their own profit.
LexisNexis, in particular, uses a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo to get away with stealing, gathering, selling and buying data on anyone they choose. This information, even when it’s inaccurate is worth millions if not billions of dollars. LexisNexis has been involved with the legal industry, legal software, and law databases for decades and they are very good at hiding behind layers upon layers of legal verbiage to get away with selling the personal data of American citizens for a profit. They are also known to manipulate, change, alter, and damage the reputation of individuals for payment from third parties. There have been many lawsuits against LexisNexis for intentionally damaging and discrediting specific individuals for the right price. These are unscrupulous, greedy men and women whose only goal in business is to make a profit for their parent company RELX Group, formerly Reed Elsevier.
If you don’t have a court order or a legal document, don’t expect LexisNexis to have any empathy what-so-ever for your situation, your data belongs to them and unless you have a judge tell them not to, they’ll sell your data and profit from it any way they like. Your best defense against data mining companies like this who see you as a dollar sign rather than a human being is to give them as little information as possible in the first place. Don’t use discount shopping cards, don’t fill out online forms and questionnaires, use aliases for all of your social media accounts. If you do fill out data, change it often with different dates of birth and addresses. Email accounts ask for some personal information, but you are under no obligation to provide them with accurate data since they feel they are under no obligation to keep your data private. They will sell your information without hesitation, so you will need to be equally calculating when it comes to guarding your private information. A good internet data removal company can help you get existing private information off the internet. Then it will be up to you to keep it off and out the wrong hands.
