Data collection has become such a commonplace practice that surfing the web these days means navigating countless privacy policies, cookie collection petitions and opt-out requests. Indeed, some website owners are so keen to get access to your personal info that they intentionally make it complicated, confusing, or even impossible to continue using their domain without submitting to their demands.
In the face of such a relentless avalanche of appeals and applications for your data, it’s easy to see why many people cave in and click through just to make the pop-up boxes disappear. After all, acquiescence is far easier than resistance – and sometimes, there are perks proffered into the bargain. However, your data is (and has always been) a valuable commodity you should think twice about parting with. Here’s why – and how you can amend your approach even after the fact.
Why opting out is important
While it might seem simpler and more stress-free to simply grant data brokers access to your personal info, this will only make things harder, more tiresome, and potentially more costly in the long run. That’s because data brokers will often sell your vital statistics to the highest bidder – and due diligence in this area can be sorely lacking. Here are just some of the outcomes that can occur if you forgo opting out:
- Increased spam. By ceding your contact information online, you make yourself vulnerable to becoming inundated with spam requests through email, text, or phone calls, all of which can negatively impact your productivity, your peace of mind, and your mental health.
- Identity theft. It’s frightening just how easily and frequently identity theft occurs – a staggering 20% of the US population fell victim to such scams in 2021. Unscrupulous sellers can flog your personal info to even more insalubrious buyers, who can then leverage the data to impersonate you.
- Account hacking. A sophisticated cybercriminal can also leverage the information you innocently give up to bypass password protocols and gain access to your online accounts.
As such, it’s imperative that you take control of your data by always opting out of such agreements, even if it proves to be trickier to do so. But what if you’ve already (perhaps inadvertently) granted permission to such brokers and site operators? Fear not. There are ways and means of fixing the issue after the fact.
How to opt-out retroactively
Although almost every site out there actively tries to harvest your data, they are usually doing so on behalf of a data brokerage firm. It is these entities that are responsible for selling your information to third parties, and it is, therefore, these entities upon which you should concentrate your efforts when trying to remove your info from the world wide web.
The process for doing so is straightforward but cumbersome. Fundamentally, all it involves is contacting each data broker individually and asking them to remove your data from the internet. To aid you in your quest, there are valuable resources such as this data brokerage opt-out guide available online free of charge.
So what’s the catch? Well, there are thousands of brokerage firms in operation, and many of them have their own protocols you must follow, meaning there are countless hoops to jump through. All in all, this could take hundreds of hours of your time… which is why many people are turning to automated removal services, which automatically send out dozens of requests at once.
Regardless of which way you approach the subject, it’s important not to give up on the sanctity of your data, even after you’ve already granted permission for brokers to harvest it in the past.
