A couple of updates.
Ancestry did remove my records those of my immediate family after a few back and forth email exchanges with their support team.
Mylife.com also did remove records after a second email request.
I stumbled across a different removal challenge today. While searching https://www.peoplewhiz.com/ I found a pretty good data set that didn't seem to be linked to one of the big 10. There removal process seemed pretty easy https://www.peoplewhiz.com/optout/ you just type in your name, state and then some throwaway email. However the next page asks you to upload a copy of your "ID". That threw me off a bit and I certainly didn't want to upload a copy of my drivers license. I checked their instructions found elseware on the website and it didn't specifically say a "State Issued ID". So I thought about uploading something like a work ID with photo, but why upload my real photo. So I decided to create a fake ID using the free web-photo editor www.pixlr.com and made my own fake gym membership card with my address and expiration date along with a photo. For the photo I went to https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ and refreshed the page a few times until there was a good front facing photo of a middle aged guy. I saved the fake ID and then uploaded to the site. Within a few minutes I received a confirmation email with link to confirm my opt-out request. My record was immediately removed. It's obvious no human is reviewing these ID's. So I created a fake one for my Wife, Daughter, Son, Mom and Dad and then deleted all of their info too.
Here is what it looks like.
So far I've confirmed or requested 1040 Records to be removed. Of the 1040 there are about 200 active request which are pending and have not yet been removed. In a small number of cases I've revived responses by email stating that I cannot remove records for family members. This is just maybe about 20-30, so when I get time, I'll just try again with more convincing credentials. I've got 64 sites to still visit to remove my own records. That's 640 request for the close family, where my own name may be listed in their records. So it's moving along.
Ancestry did remove my records those of my immediate family after a few back and forth email exchanges with their support team.
Mylife.com also did remove records after a second email request.
I stumbled across a different removal challenge today. While searching https://www.peoplewhiz.com/ I found a pretty good data set that didn't seem to be linked to one of the big 10. There removal process seemed pretty easy https://www.peoplewhiz.com/optout/ you just type in your name, state and then some throwaway email. However the next page asks you to upload a copy of your "ID". That threw me off a bit and I certainly didn't want to upload a copy of my drivers license. I checked their instructions found elseware on the website and it didn't specifically say a "State Issued ID". So I thought about uploading something like a work ID with photo, but why upload my real photo. So I decided to create a fake ID using the free web-photo editor www.pixlr.com and made my own fake gym membership card with my address and expiration date along with a photo. For the photo I went to https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ and refreshed the page a few times until there was a good front facing photo of a middle aged guy. I saved the fake ID and then uploaded to the site. Within a few minutes I received a confirmation email with link to confirm my opt-out request. My record was immediately removed. It's obvious no human is reviewing these ID's. So I created a fake one for my Wife, Daughter, Son, Mom and Dad and then deleted all of their info too.
Here is what it looks like.
So far I've confirmed or requested 1040 Records to be removed. Of the 1040 there are about 200 active request which are pending and have not yet been removed. In a small number of cases I've revived responses by email stating that I cannot remove records for family members. This is just maybe about 20-30, so when I get time, I'll just try again with more convincing credentials. I've got 64 sites to still visit to remove my own records. That's 640 request for the close family, where my own name may be listed in their records. So it's moving along.
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