I hope I am not being paranoid or overreacting, but this upset me.

I occasionally Google myself to see if I've come up in any recent online reviews or event listings. I was pleasantly surprised to find a photo of myself on Broadwayworld.com for example. Well, I did so just now and was AMAZED to see on the right-hand side of Google, a statement declaring, "We Found (my name)".

Curious, I clicked on the link, and my name, city of residence, and AGE were instantly displayed. Now, I am a vain creature and I am consistently cast as around 10+ years younger than I am.

Anyway, I didn't like this entity, Intelius, making public my personal details, so I did some research as to how to remove my name from the database. In my research, I found another site, zabasearch.com and, curious and furious, typed in my name.

This time, my home address and a Google map with an arrow pointing to my home showed up.

These sites require no login. I pay to have an unlisted telephone number. I value my privacy and take any means to ensure that (such as not being listed in the telephone book.)

Then in the interest of safety, my name is printed on my headshots. My name is pretty unique and certainly if my headshot were to find its way into someone's hands well...now they can find out where I live!

This just makes my blood BOIL. Thoughts?

PB

Yes, privacy is not something we have much of anymore. It is scary how much information people can actually glean off the internet.

Zaba actually will take your information off their website, but you will need to check back because they don't guarantee the information won't reappear. :-)
http://www.zabasearch.com/block_records/

In California, people in the business can also have drivers license information sealed so only government personnel can see. That came about because Rebecca Schaeffer's stalker walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles and asked for, and received, her home address. She was then murdered on her doorstep. Californians should request their info be sealed.

It is a wise thing to have bills sent to a PO Box, instead of your home address, wherever you live. That way, you can hopefully not show up on these type lists.

quote:

Originally posted by pb.nyc:
I hope I am not being paranoid or overreacting, but this upset me.

Curious, I clicked on the link, and my name, city of residence, and AGE were instantly displayed. Now, I am a vain creature and I am consistently cast as around 10+ years younger than I am.

You may want to join the growing number of actors (actresses mostly) who are angered by the fact that imdb posts their birth dates. Many of my friends have no idea how that info got to be on imdb, and have complained. (They too are concerned that they might be losing acting work because they don't play roles that are their own age.) Apparently imdb doesn't really care what actors think -- they consider their site a public information tool and not an actor marketing tool, though they are very clear in their marketing TO actors, asking them to pay money to post photos and resumes on the site. (One actress I know even brought this up to them and offered to pay money to have their age removed, but imdb wouldn't do it.)

Inevitably, someone will probably need to take some legal action if they want birth dates and ages removed from imdb.

PB.NYC: Thank you for starting this thread!! No, you are not the only person who is ticked off that everyone's personal info is out on display...

THEDIVINEMSD: Have you tried to have the DMV seal your info? Do they charge you for that?

And if anyone else knows how to remove their info from INTELIUS and other places, please post back here. Thanks!

You don't have to be an actor it have your info out there... you might have to pay a couple bucks (literally, two dollars) for an address and those sort of details, but they give city and age for free.

In regards to IMDb, they have my age/date of birth on there, and I can't do anything about it. But even worse, they have the wrong birthday on there for a friend of mine, they added a few years to his age!

The nice thing about having terrible handwriting is that somewhere along the line someone woefully mistranscribed my address so that I've got at least one seriously wrong address out there. Then there was a credit record mishap which I fixed a long time ago, but which has left me with a pseudonym and an address in New Jersey.

So one solution might be to submit erroneous information to groups you don't care about and leave cyberspies to wonder which is the real you.

quote:

Originally posted by littlemonkey:


THEDIVINEMSD: Have you tried to have the DMV seal your info? Do they charge you for that?

I may have misspoken regarding CA DMV. It seems CA now has a law that no one except law enforcement can get access to your information. However, the other states
Congress enacted the Public Law 103-322, the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) of 1994 on September 13, 1997. The intent of the legislation is to protect the personal privacy of individuals licensed by the states by prohibiting certain disclosures of "personal information" provided by the driver and maintained by the states. This law also requires a Department of Motor Vehicles to provide an opt-out provision if personal information is released for direct marketing or solicitation purposes. Since California law (California Vehicle Code Section 1808.23(d)) prohibits residence address information from being used for direct marketing or solicitation purposes, NO OPT-OUT provision is required or offered in California.
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/authority.htm



Also, the thing about IMDB: Anyone can place information on your account. They just have to hit the Edit Info button above the STARmeter. No one at IMDB checks what is written or even tries to verify the information. The only ones that I have seen that have been able to have things removed are parents of minors. If they write, requesting removal because of security reasons, IMDB will usually remove the information. For adults, they will leave the info. Perhaps you could go in and change it so it is some inane BS that everyone will know is wrong...

quote:

Originally posted by thedivinemsd:

Also, the thing about IMDB: Anyone can place information on your account. They just have to hit the Edit Info button above the STARmeter. No one at IMDB checks what is written or even tries to verify the information. The only ones that I have seen that have been able to have things removed are parents of minors. If they write, requesting removal because of security reasons, IMDB will usually remove the information. For adults, they will leave the info. Perhaps you could go in and change it so it is some inane BS that everyone will know is wrong...

It USED to be that any registered member of imdb could add birth dates to anyone's listing. I know someone added mine years ago. (I suspect it was some non-industry acquaintance or family member thinking they were being helpful.) But now imdb asks for a link verifying the information from some other public source. (Of course that other public source could be inaccurate.) It actually doesn't bother me as much as it does some actors to have my birthday there, but you can't just go in there and change it to "some inane BS" as you suggested. The system doesn't allow it.

Well, if you had your own web page, you "could" place incorrect, inane BS on your page, get the information approved by IMDB, then delete the information. Just how much do you (whoever) want that specific information removed from IMDB?

I just found this intelius link to my name (I am the only person in the world with this name, so it's always me that comes up) and they have my old hometown correct, but have me listed as several years OLDER than I actually am. I have signed up for google alerts every time something like this comes up, but for some reason it doesn't catch everything. It makes me so angry that a website can sell MY personal information, I found a place that even had my email to sell...so frustrating!

quote:

Originally posted by Broadway2Hollywood:

quote:

Originally posted by pb.nyc:
I hope I am not being paranoid or overreacting, but this upset me.

Curious, I clicked on the link, and my name, city of residence, and AGE were instantly displayed. Now, I am a vain creature and I am consistently cast as around 10+ years younger than I am.

You may want to join the growing number of actors (actresses mostly) who are angered by the fact that imdb posts their birth dates. Many of my friends have no idea how that info got to be on imdb, and have complained. (They too are concerned that they might be losing acting work because they don't play roles that are their own age.) Apparently imdb doesn't really care what actors think -- they consider their site a public information tool and not an actor marketing tool, though they are very clear in their marketing TO actors, asking them to pay money to post photos and resumes on the site. (One actress I know even brought this up to them and offered to pay money to have their age removed, but imdb wouldn't do it.)

Inevitably, someone will probably need to take some legal action if they want birth dates and ages removed from imdb.

Have you ever asked youself HOW they actually get your birthdates?

On every time card you fill out for work, you have to put your birthdate - try a phony one, see what shows up on imdb.