Privacy Guides

Federal law makes itemized political contributions over $200 public, and that transparency doubles as a free, structured, ready-made dataset for data brokers.

Most data brokers never check death records, so a deceased person’s profile, and the identity theft risk with it, can sit there until family takes action.

A practical, sequenced checklist for cleaning up your data broker exposure, pulling together every step covered across this site into one starting point.

Outdated addresses, mixed-up identities, and stale public records are common data broker errors, here’s why they happen and what you can actually do about it.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act entitles you to free copies of far more than your credit report. Here is the list of consumer reports most people never request.

FamilyTreeNow and similar sites build public family maps from public records, exposing relatives, including children, who never signed up or consented to it.

Reverse phone lookup sites and people-search sites usually pull from the same underlying data, and in many cases they are run by the very same companies.

Insurers buy from specialized risk-data brokers, not the people-search sites most consumers know, and what those brokers hold can directly affect what you pay.

All three restrict access to your credit file, but they differ in cost, legal protection, and how fast you can undo them. Here is which one fits your situation.

Landlords use FCRA-regulated tenant screening reports, not casual broker searches. That distinction gives you real dispute rights when a report gets it wrong.

Most people-search results cannot legally be used to make a hiring decision. A separate class of background check company can, and the difference protects you.

Ancestry, MyHeritage, and 23andMe are not classic data brokers, but they hold an unusually sensitive category of data. That difference matters for your rights.