This page explains Optery's coverage limitations for Dishonorable Data Brokers such as PeekYou, Radaris, BlockShopper, SocialCatfish and others

Whereas most data brokers comply with opt out requests and completely remove personal information from their web sites without too much trouble, some data brokers like PeekYou, Radaris, and others are notoriously difficult, make opt out requests exceedingly challenging, and/or do not fully comply with opt out requests. We refer to these data brokers as "Dishonorable Data Brokers". For this reason, most of our competitors do not cover Dishonorable Data Brokers such as data brokers listed below:


411.info
BlockShopper
FederalPay.org
Florida Residents
OkCaller
PeekYou
PhoneOwner
PPLSCANNER
PrivateNumberChecker.com
Radaris
Rocketreach
SocialCatfish
Verispy

We prefer not to give Dishonorable Data Brokers a free pass, and continue to pursue multiple channels to have our customers' profiles removed from these data brokers. However, in practice, this can result in these data brokers remaining in the "In Progress" state for many months, and some, possibility, indefinitely if we don't achieve a "break through".

Through persistence and filing complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and State Attorney Generals offices, in many cases, we have been successful in removing profiles for our customers, but it often takes months of time and effort to achieve a "break through".

Is there anything else we can do?

We recommend submitting complaints about dishonorable data brokers to the Federal Trade Commission through their ReportFraud.ftc.gov web site, and, for our California-based customers, to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) via their complaint submission function. Below are the links where you can do this:

Report Internet Privacy Fraud with the Federal Trade Commission's ReportFraud.ftc.gov


File a Consumer Complaint Against Non-Compliant Data Brokers with the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)

We also recommend you write to your elected officials and demand they pass strict privacy legislation requiring businesses to comply with opt out requests, and to require stiff penalties when privacy laws are broken. In today's day and age, the right to opt out of data sales and exposure should be a basic human right.

Updated on: 23/07/2024