As a kid when we would get a new phone book I would open it and find our name and phone number. As an adult I went to the trouble to get an unlisted phone number. Today I'm on the FCC do not call list.
When the internet was fresh, it was interesting to type in your name and see what came up. Now it is scary. Name, birthdate, address, phone number, spouse and employers past and present all pop up. Also showing up are former spouses, their spouses, kids, parents, former addresses.... all connected to me! Too much for my liking.
It turns out that even when your data is taken from legal sources (tax records, public filings, etc.) it is still YOUR data and you have a say in how it can be shared. But it takes action.
A tech savvy friend told me what it would take to get my info removed from the websites that collect and offer up our personal data. I spent about an hour starting the process myself and was overwhelmed. I realized it would take me hours of effort spread out over weeks, no, months, no.... years!
There were three things that struck me; first it would take a ton of one time effort to remove my personal information, second, I would need to learn how to do it as the rules keep changing and third, as new services pop up, or my data resurfaces I would have to search out my info and repeat the process again and again and again.
Knowledge, expertise and sophisticated tools, that is what makes something a business opportunity. There must be a company that does this.
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