Credit: ThinkstockDon't want your home address or other personal info published to the world? This weekend, take an hour or two to make yourself a less visible target.
Unfortunately, doxxers don't have to work very hard to find a victim's personal info. A number of free and paid services known as data brokers create profiles of vast numbers of individuals based on aggregated data from business directories, social media and other public records. With a specific target in mind, all a doxxer has to do is search one or more of these services to find the details he or she wants.
More bad news: There are hundreds of data brokers, not all of which offer opt-out processes. (Exceptions are made for state-mandated protected groups, such as sexual assault survivors in California.) Removing yourself from all those that do can be a Sisyphean task, but managing your data with just the following 11 can be accomplished in an hour or two.
I selected these brokers based on the following factors:
What those who have been doxxed cited as services that were used against them
Search results for my own name
Consultation with Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and author of Data Brokers and Your Privacy
Opt out of the following services, and you'll have "gotten all of the big ones," says Stephens—but pay attention tothe caveat at the end of this story.
Note that some opt-out forms paradoxically require you to submit personal data in order to have it removed; be your own judge of whether this is wise. (I recommend creating a temporary email address specifically for these requests.)
Also note that with most of these services you'll receive a confirmation email shortly after you submit your removal request. If you don't see the email in your inbox, check your spam filter.
Here's what I found when I tried to opt out of each one.
read full article here and how to protect your private information:
Also, great information if you have children:
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