How To Protect Your Identity In All Search Engines
The web is an open source model of a potentially your information getting into the wrong hands. Identity theft, stalkers, lawyers waiting to serve you. collection agencies, nosy co workers, potential employers doing back ground checks and sniffing for information, creepy guys on dating sites, stalkers and more.
What should you do to really protect your identity, your name, you phone and your address?
The first thing you need to do it take a defensive stance when approaching and signing up for any social networking site. Make sure you can use an alias name as a screen name and never place your date of birth or exact one, real zip code, real phone and address in any website that involves social networking or dating Then it is best to register a blank profile with your real name if that name has not been taken and keep it empty- This way no one can try to duplicate your information, pose as you and get into friends accounts Not all sites work this way as there are usually hundreds of people with the same name. If you are a trademark holder or holder of any pending registrations, make sure your domain name registrations are registered a private. The cost is extra but well worth the privacy.
The only people that have that information should be your family, and your banks of course have it and the IRS. Make sure you opt out of any 3rd party affiliates at your bank soliciting for home loans, credit cards and new business. If you need these services, contact the lenders directly. Don't let these services, advertisers and their affiliates have information from you from your banks. All banks are required by law to let you opt out of this option. Contact each of your banks for the procedures to keep you info only within their database and not offered to affiliates.
Make all profiles private, such as Facebook, My Space, Linked in, Classmates.com as some examples. Private meaning, only your online friends can view your information. Linked In and Facebook allow you to keep parts of your profile private and some public. These still are not fail safe solutions for data centers that end of getting this information from these sites. We don't have the real truth on how data from your social networks out there gets in the hands for data mining. Data is usually collected by companies like Intellidyn, Rapleaf and EXelate. Exalate has an online opt out page. Visit it, click opt out and you are supposed to be out- They don't ask for information so it is quite obvious they can see your IP and cookies when opting out. Click this link to opt out for Exelate and check the other sites for their options. Please search Exelate in Google and search for news consumer privacy opt put link
These two websites, Network Advertising.org and AboutAds.info
Contact these companies to help manage your privacy online. They work with the clearing houses and offer information on how to opt out of member ad networks. Network advertising lists the Google Chrome and Mozilla links you can proceed to in order to start the opt out process.
Here are a few solutions to get you off the net and safe.
Search your name and if it appears in a website like Spokeo, My Life, Intellius, People Search, and Emailfinder. Archives.com and a host of other sites. You will need to contact these companies directly and tell then that you want your information removed.
If you see your phone number displayed in Google Search, fill out this form here for a removal request.
http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html
Google states this on the page exactly "To remove your residential listing information from the Google phonebook, please fill out the form below, entering all information exactly as it appears in your phonebook entry. Doing so will mean your residential listing does not appear in Google for any phonebook search, even searches conducted on your name instead of your phone number. Please note that this removal is permanent and that it's not possible to add your phone number again in the future."
Removing your phonebook listing will not remove your personal information from other pages on the web or from other reverse phone listing lookup services, such as: Anywho,Swutchboard.com , White Pages.com , Reverse Phone Directory, Phonenumber.com andSmartpages.com.
If you own property in your name it is likely to be searched and found on Zillow.com. Property records are not private. Type in the name of a property owner and their address, by city and state and the top listings are companies that list real estate property records.
You can download Ghostery at http://www.ghostery.com which is a browser extension that lest you see who is tracking you when you visit websites. Ghostery claims they allow you to block scripts from untrusted companies, delete local shared objects, and the ability to block images.
Privacy Choice lists tracking data for over 250 sites and helps you opt out of them. Search Google for their links
Search for a company called Reputation in Google They will claim to remove and or bury data in the Google search engine and others for a monthly fee.
Yahoo and Lycos People Search are powered by Acxiom. To remove basic search info from Yahoo visit their privacy policy page and other search engines, view their privacy policy links as well.
Also check your cell phone carrier and landline carriers. Verizon has told us that the no longer allow cell phone information of their customers to be purchased from these companies from consumers wanting to get information from the sites like Intellius and other sites that list phone number searched and reverse lookups.
Instead of paying some of these websites to remove your information such as Reputation.com, you can also ask Google to remove it. Maybe you see a dead link or want to ask Google to improve their Safe Search filter? Sign up a Google account, with Google Webmaster tool try. The webmaster tools help webmasters control information or images that appears in the Google search. If you find a page in Google search results that lists your personal info such as a credit card or social security number, ask. Google to submit the request to contact the websites hosting company to request that the page be taken down immediately. To get Google also start the process to remove the information from its search results, email removals@ google.com to eliminate the your personal information from Google index or cached pages.
Can You Remove Information from State and City Records?
Yes you can. Each state is different. It is advisable to call your local Open Government Guide lists the open laws of each state.
NASS.ORG have a published article on how states get the records that they have about you and place in their online databases. In final you may check this site out for reverse phone lookup websites and reviews on them. Always check these sites to see how all your telephone numbers come up them. Visit their link Phonereverselookups in Google
It is also a good idea to monitor your credit report every 30 days. Sign up for a monitoring service that alerts you to changes in your report. There are many services out there such as Lifelock.com, EquifaxID Patrol, ID Watch Dog just to name a few. Start with a free credit report at Equifax or Trans Union. By law you can get a free one every year.
You may also register here the website do not call listed with the government url extension to keep your phone number on the Do Not Call List for telemarketers. Set up a Google Alert with your name and phone numbers and when your name appears and gets indexed you will receive an email alert to see the link. Step Rep is also another monitoring system. Here you monitor how your business competitors stack up against you in online searches.
Source: http://www.cwebnews.com/us-news/172365-how-to-protect-your-identity-in-all-search-engines.html