Author |
Message |
Ingemar
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 04:22 am: |
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What ways are there (if any) to force a US based company to remove your personal info from their records? It's not that I want to go to court over such an issue, but knowing what rights I have (and more importantly, what obligations a company has concerning such a request) may help me in some trouble I'm having with a company that has shared my info with their resellers. TIA, Ingemar. |
Chainsaw
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 09:12 am: |
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Most companies have to inform you of the "Privacy Policy" that spells out what they intend to do with your personal info. Should be available on their web site or by mail if you request. That policy should be able to tell you how to get purged from their records. If they don't comply, I 'believe' it would be a violation of US Federal Law. Just mention "my lawyer" in the correspondence. That should speed things up. |
Bomber
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 09:46 am: |
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depends a great deal on the relationship you have with the company -- employer? past employer? are you a customer? a random passer-by? if you're a customer, even if you have, in the past, given them permission to keep the data (for instance, yes, please send my drivel about stuff I don't care about in response to an email, snail mail or phone call), like chain sez, their privacy policy should guide you on getting your records purged -- if there was an employment relationship in the past, it's different, especially depending on the industry |
Reepicheep
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 10:44 am: |
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US laws and EU laws (and even UK laws) are all radically different. In the US, unless it is social security number, drivers license number, or credit card number, you don't have a lot of pull. In the UK, you have a tremendous amount of protection, probably to the point where it is hard to do business. US companies dealing with UK / EU data probably don't have to comply with the UK / EU laws, but if the data was initially dispersed by an EU / UK company, you can cause a lot of trouble with them. |
Along4theride
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 10:59 am: |
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in the US if you are a customer of a company that is part of other companies ALL of those companies can have legal access to your information under the new Privacy Act. Say that you have an established relationship with Southtrust, when they merge with Wachovia next month ALL companies that are part of the Wachovia 'umbrella' get access to your information for solicitation. Another example Discover Card is part of Morgan Stanley. If you have a Discover card they can share your information with anyone in their 'Corporate Famliy' which includes- financial service providers that offer mortgage lending services, securities and asset management services, investment opportunities and mutual funds, and may include non-financial service providers. These companies can also share your information legally with Non-Affiliated Parties for Marketing Purposes at their discretion. Best of luck. (Message edited by along4theride on May 26, 2005) |
Davegess
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 11:02 am: |
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Micheal Dell said it best; "You have no privacy, get over it" Sad but true |
Imeazy
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 11:26 am: |
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I have to agree with Davegess. Heard about this site http://zabasearch.com/ the other day on the news. Did a quick search for myself and sure as s**t all my info except for my phone number was there. Just glad my number wasn't there... I get enough telemarketer calls even though I have signed up with the National Do Not Call Registry. https://www.donotcall.gov/ Thank God for answering machines. laughs |
Cerbero
| Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 08:51 pm: |
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zabasearch i found three different entries for myself... everything was either wrong or outdated... if anyone uses that to look for me they're not gonna have much luck. that said; i have to agree with the above statements... privacy no longer exists in this country... once you're in the system, you're never getting out of it. |
Ingemar
| Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 03:06 am: |
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I'll let it go. The fuss involved is not worth it, but I figured I would give it a shot. Figure this: I ask them to remove my info and they ask me for more! They really think I got half a brain or so. Supposedly they need my location to look it up but their form doesn't even provide a field for that! |
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