What is the general consensus on trusting data removal services with the data you provide them?
I’ve spent 5 years telling myself I’ll go through the long lists of data aggregators and one by one manually send removal requests. But it’s such a massive undertaking. I’d like to finally get it done through one of these services, but my gut tells me it feels wrong.
Has anybody used them and how do you feel about it? Is DeleteMe a good choice?
Trusted to do their job? Personally, I think so, and would go as far as to say the main contenders are not doing anything fishy with your data.
I think the trouble comes in with the fact that they become a high-value target to hackers because of how much information they have on their customers. I’m sure that they take a lot of technical precautions to safeguard user data, but for me personally, the risk is not worth the value proposition.
What data do they have besides a stack of offline platters? Should be fine
Is user data stored on air-gapped computers? I’d be very surprised if it was. Offline doesn’t necessarily mean innaccessible, and in fact user data must be accessible as a database on the company’s intranet in some way in order to perform the search and removal efforts. Plus there’s the (albeit small) possibility of rogue employees deciding to do something nefarious with their personal access to that info.
It depends. DuckDuckGo recently launched it’s “Privacy Pro” Plan in the US afaik (I’m EU citizen) which claims to provide such service, but it runs locally.
Mozilla has one that I’ve heard good things about.
That’s the one I’ve heard bad things about.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/mozilla-ditches-privacy-partner-over-conflict-of-interest
If you use a service and can’t find your own data it probably worked more than not at all
I 2nd the DuckDuckGo recommendation.
The way their service works is the MOST private imo. Runs locally and shares minimal data during the takedown request process.
DuckDuckGo gains revenue via advertisements and affiliate programs
DuckDuckGo announced that all map and address-related searches would be powered by Apple Maps
DuckDuckGo had blocked search results for some major pirating websites
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/duckduckgo-privacy-browser-facing-backlash-over-microsoft-trackers
Neither of those links contain information relevant to their privacy pro removal product, which only runs on your local device and is definitely not supported by advertisements.
However, I suppose I can see how you may not trust the brand due to their browser and search engine have integrated ad tracking.
