My old phone number got stuck in a data broker loop for eight months

I tried to delete my info from these people finder sites after a breach, but they just kept selling it to each other. It took me over 30 hours of emails and opt out forms to finally stop the calls. Has anyone found a better way to actually make your data stay gone?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma4093d agoMost Upvoted

That "super aggressive" legal route is the only thing that works. I started citing the exact statute numbers from my state law in every email and contact form. It turns out they have actual compliance departments that have to respond to those. I even sent a few certified letters. It's a stupid amount of work, but once you make it a legal problem and not a customer service one, they finally stop playing games.

cameronmurray3d ago

Ugh, that loop is the worst. I had to get super aggressive and file a deletion request under my state's privacy law, the one that's like California's. That finally made a couple of the bigger sites actually remove my info for good instead of just recycling it. It was still a pain, but it stuck.