Newest briefing: Voter files: who gets your registration record, and how to limit it
Follow your data trail
See where your name, address and phone number end up, and how to pull them back out of people-search sites and broker files.
Start the opt-out guideLatest
- Voter files: who gets your registration record, and how to limit it
- Google's Results about you tool: what it removes and what it can't
- Researching a company in Mexico, Chile and Colombia: the open registries
- Your phone number links more of your life than you think
- California's Delete Act and DROP: one request to every registered data broker
Company research
Check a business before you sign or pay: state filings, licenses, complaint records and the warning signs. We also explain how registries and tax IDs work in Argentina, Chile and elsewhere in Latin America.
From the briefing
Every briefing »- Company Research
Reading a Secretary of State business filing, field by field
What each field on a state business record means, from status and formation date to registered agent and officers, with a fictional example and red flags.
- Online Safety
The first hour after a data breach letter: what to do, in order
A breach letter arrived. Here is the first hour, in order: check that it is real, change passwords, freeze your credit and get an IRS IP PIN if needed.
- Public Records Explained
Court records online: what anyone can see, and what stays sealed
What federal and state court records show online, which cases stay sealed, how errors reach background checks and brokers, and how to get a record fixed.
- Remove Your Data
Why people-search listings come back after you opt out
Opted out and found yourself listed again? Why people-search listings return, how to keep a removal log and a short routine that keeps your details down.
- Latin America
Argentina's personal data law (Law 25.326), explained for non-lawyers
What Argentina's Law 25.326 protects, when no consent is needed, the 10-day and 5-day clocks on your requests, who enforces it, and when to call a lawyer.
- Tech & Law
The Fair Credit Reporting Act and people-search sites: where the line is
Why people-search sites say they are not consumer reporting agencies, what the FTC did when some crossed the line, and your rights in a real background check.
Browse by sector
- Data Privacy
- Remove Your Data
- Public Records Explained
- Company Research
- Online Safety
- Latin America
- Tech & Law
A name, an ID number, a birth date and an address are personal data, even when a public office holds them. Laws such as Argentina's Law 25.326, the European GDPR and the new state privacy laws in the United States give you a right to see what a company keeps about you and, in many cases, to have it corrected or deleted. The guides here show how to use those rights, one request at a time.