2600 Magazine_ The Hacker Quarterly - Digital Edition - Summer 2011 - 2600 Magazine [54]
To summarize my introduction and get to the meat of my article: Maintaining one’s privacy (particularly in America) these days is a daunting task. But for any good hacker, the harder the climb, the greater the reward. I am no criminal, I owe no large debts, I’m not skipping out on alimony, and there is nothing I am running from. I am simply a very serious believer in the intentions behind the writers of the U.S. Constitution, when they deliberated and thought very hard about the “God given right” that everyone has for reasonable privacy. Watching that privacy being eroded (maybe avalanching at this point?) year after year has inspired me to make a hobby of seeing just how invisible I can be.
So I bring to you, 2600 readers, straight from my own “privacy journal,” some first steps in clearing up your digital footprint, along with notes I took along the way. Everything in this article I have performed and can personally vouch for. It is far from complete. Many books have written on the subject and society at large is far from achieving any reasonable kind of privacy (as the U.S. government and international data brokers continue to actively work toward breaking existing privacy laws) and I didn’t get into changing Social Security numbers/names, filing off fingerprints, making an identity from scratch, flooding the databases with too much information to obscure what is real, or any other uber-advanced techniques.
Here I simply have a record of addresses, dates, phone numbers, and procedures for the largest data brokers and government privacy agencies I could find, which anyone may use to increase their privacy. Enjoy!
LexisNexis
https://www.lexisnexis.com/opt-out-public-facing-products/
a) 7.17.10: Filled out LexisNexis online opt-out form. Saved reference number.
b) Printed out corresponding paperwork to be mailed or faxed.
c) LexisNexis has a very strict policy about removal of information. You must be a target of stalking or fit some other qualification listed on their site. You must prove it by supplying a police report, letter from a Social Services agency, or other proof. You must also send them a copy of two valid forms of ID, a list of all the places you’ve lived in the past ten years, a utility bill, and more.
d) I went to my local police station and retrieved a copy of an arrest that led to nothing from many years ago. In my letter to LexisNexis, I told them I was worried that the police in my case were “dirty cops” and that they would seek revenge on me because they lost their case (hey, it’s possible...). I think I also used the word “attorney” a few times for good measure.
e) Mailed paperwork “certified mail,” so I could prove they got it.
f) Emailed: privacy@lexisnexis.com requesting confirmation.
g) Received verbal confirmation of opt-out, waiting for paper receipt (two to four weeks, they said).
h) 8.21.10: Received mail from LexisNexis dated 7.17.10 denying my opt-out request, with no specific reason given. Saved paper in file. To succeed, I must: “Prove that [I am] an individual at risk of physical harm, or call LexisNexis privacy hotline at 800-831-2578 or LexisNexis privacy coordinator at 800-227-9597, extension 55568.”
i) 8.22.10: Left a message for privacy coordinator.
j) 8.23.10: Received voice message from the privacy coordinator informing me that my opt-out order was actually approved, it’s just that my mail got “crossed.” Yeah, right.
k) Called privacy coordinator back and requested paper or email confirmation of opt-out.
l) 8.24.10: Privacy coordinator left voice message saying documentation is in the mail, ETA one week.
m) 10.1.10: Paperwork received and framed on my wall.
ChoicePoint
http://www.privacyatchoicepoint.com/optout_ext.html#optout
a) Filled out ChoicePoint opt-out form.
b) Received