Monday, February 18, 2008

Opt Out


I'm going to collect and publish sites that aggregate user data, and let you know how to get yourself removed (or at least blocked) from their database.

Do a search on yourself and see if you come up on these aggregating sites:

Rap Leaf
http://www.rapleaf.com/
To opt out of Rap Leaf, go to:
http://www.rapleaf.com/opt_out

Peek You
http://www.peekyou.com
If you want yourself removed, you have to send an email with the Peekyou URL in which you appear to bob@peekyou.com

Zabasearch
http://www.zabasearch.com/
http://www.zabasearch.com/block_records/
Zabasearch kills me. You actually have to MAIL THEM A PRINTOUT of a web page with your search results. And if you want it expedited, it costs $20!! Shame on you, Zaba Search! Collect data and make people pay extra to have it removed immediately. That's disgusting.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

omg! what is this stuff? i'm completely ignorant about it.

Major Generalist said...

These are web sites that aggregate data about you that is available on the magical Interweb. For example, if you have a MySpace page or Facebook account and leave the setting to your profile open to the public, these sites troll the web, gather your data from various sources and post all your profile information in one place.

They often know your email address or any of your user names, so in collecting this data in one place without your permission, all of your data on the web is being exposed simultaneously.

I'm not a fan.

charmschool said...

Have you determined if searching for your email address actually ADDS it to the system? I want to check, but I'm scared!