Deleting your personal data is just an illusion.
Companies just mark your data as "deleted", but keep the data anyway, in the best of cases just for auditing purposes.
You will never, ever, be able to delete your data.
Stop dreaming.
johnisgood · 1m ago
Exactly, that is what I have been saying for ages.
People think they can delete their messages on say, Discord. I tell them it is not deleted, just marked deleted. The data is still there.
jFriedensreich · 1h ago
And as important: making it impossible or very hard and annoying to export and own your data.
cnst · 1h ago
Some companies somehow blatantly get away with not allowing any export at all.
For example, Amazon eero, the overpriced WiFi router that doesn't even work (without phoning back home and having an app installed on your phone). They had an outage like a year ago, and during said outage, all your existing ad blocking stopped working, too, even if you never rebooted during the outage, and even though said blocking is supposed to be performed locally. I think you can't even get the ad blocking unless you or your ISP pays for the special subscription, either. (I imagine the thing could have removed all local ad blocking settings and lists during the time it couldn't confirm you're still a paying customer because their cloud was down?)
Does anyone know how exactly does Amazon get away with not providing data export for their eero product? I haven't seen a Blink or Ring exports, either. The main Amazon dot com does have the export, which has some extensive data you may not think they do collect, but it doesn't cover eero, Blink or Ring.
anonzzzies · 1h ago
Yes, I am happy I can export my data with google but boy it is annoying to do.
yard2010 · 45m ago
Those pricks throttled the download to 30 kbps. When I tried to download with aria, after a few failed attempts (not straight forward ofc) I got a message saying I can only download it 6 times, and that I should send a new request.
This is evil.
dkiebd · 29m ago
I have downloaded my data with google takeout dozens of times without a single issue. Speed was very high (maximum possible for my connection) and never had a download error. I’m talking about multi-gigabyte exports of my email and my drive.
datadrivenangel · 1h ago
"After reviewing the websites of all 499 data brokers registered with the state, we found 35 had code to stop certain pages from showing up in searches."
That's not as bad as I would have expected
tracker1 · 22m ago
Has anyone used deleteme or a similar service? What was your experience, and do you feel it was worth it?
It feels like such a cat and mouse game, that should be easy to automate, that said, I'm not sure it'll be effective.
temp0826 · 1m ago
I have (optery, not deleteme) and I think it's good to use at least once to clear out a buildup of your info out there. I couldn't justify paying for it monthly but if I was a semi-important person it might be worth it, or at least 1 or 2 months out of the year. Many brokers aren't responsive and it takes forever or never actually happens, and stuff definitely creeps back, but from what I can tell there is a heck of a lot less of me out there.
amarcheschi · 1h ago
btw, in europe, UK, turkey you should be able to use the official european digital advertisement alliance website to opt out from profiling from a bunch of ad providers: https://www.youronlinechoices.com/
droolboy · 1h ago
Try trying to delete your open ai data. Even if you live somewhere with the right to forget or some protection they refuse the request unless you upload a copy of your ID. But then they have that data.
I don't think there is a mechanism to do that. I think that puts all AI models in breach of the GDPR by default.
I might be wrong but if I'm not that's a serious problem for AI companies.
hendo3000 · 1h ago
Does deleting your data even matter if it's already been sold to a data broker?
ChrisMarshallNY · 1h ago
What mugshot extortionists do, is charge you to delete your mugshot, then move it to another domain that they own.
nemomarx · 1h ago
"will pay to delete info" is one of the more valuable pieces of data about you after all
BolexNOLA · 1h ago
There’s still value in turning the faucet off if you ask me. Especially if you’ve hardened security/privacy practices to better protect yourself moving forward.
I only got really serious about consistently using VPN’s, firewalls, adblockers, and more privacy centered browsers a few years ago. I would say over the last 8 to 12 months I finally started to see it pay off. I still don’t see a lot of ads if ever, and they are wildly off target when I do see them. Using email aliases that I regularly purge has also made a huge difference when it comes to password/info leaks in particular.
Now if I could only get my damn phone number under control… so tired of the endless spam texts
benjiro · 28m ago
Here is another offender "VanceAI" ...
Try deleting your account with the delete button. Nothing happens. Everything on the site perfect, just that Delete button is broken (and the request times out).
But wait, you can send a ticket. Get response days later that it is marked as resolved.
You go back to the site ... O, i am still logged in with my old session.
Then you see your email: deleted_2544642405_blabla@gmail.com
So fake "delete" by simply putting a deleted and some timestamp before your email address, while keeping your other data.
O and the Delete button is also not fixed ;)
Companies really only seem to learn with some hefty GDPR fines.
stevekemp · 1h ago
Of course you did. I've been submitting GDPR subject information requests to companies that spam me - and most of them ignore me.
The ones that do take the time to reply usually say "We've deleted your personal data now", which is not at all what I want. I want to know what details they have about me, where they obtained it, and why they think spamming me is acceptable.
I've got a folder where I keep printouts of the recent offenders, and once I get a few weeks of holiday I'll start filing small-claims cases against them.
graemep · 1h ago
> I've got a folder where I keep printouts of the recent offenders, and once I get a few weeks of holiday I'll start filing small-claims cases against them.
A rare case of doing God's work at a profit!
fnord77 · 1h ago
Is there any downside to requesting data brokers delete your personal data?
amanaplanacanal · 1h ago
The biggest downside is that it's probably a waste of your time.
SilverElfin · 1h ago
my worry is that the request to delete data requires that you give them data about who you are. And who knows what they will do with that
anon_e-moose · 1h ago
If you reach out to them you're risking validating that the data they already have is somewhat accurate, plus they might demand more information from you.
People think they can delete their messages on say, Discord. I tell them it is not deleted, just marked deleted. The data is still there.
For example, Amazon eero, the overpriced WiFi router that doesn't even work (without phoning back home and having an app installed on your phone). They had an outage like a year ago, and during said outage, all your existing ad blocking stopped working, too, even if you never rebooted during the outage, and even though said blocking is supposed to be performed locally. I think you can't even get the ad blocking unless you or your ISP pays for the special subscription, either. (I imagine the thing could have removed all local ad blocking settings and lists during the time it couldn't confirm you're still a paying customer because their cloud was down?)
Does anyone know how exactly does Amazon get away with not providing data export for their eero product? I haven't seen a Blink or Ring exports, either. The main Amazon dot com does have the export, which has some extensive data you may not think they do collect, but it doesn't cover eero, Blink or Ring.
This is evil.
That's not as bad as I would have expected
It feels like such a cat and mouse game, that should be easy to automate, that said, I'm not sure it'll be effective.
I might be wrong but if I'm not that's a serious problem for AI companies.
I only got really serious about consistently using VPN’s, firewalls, adblockers, and more privacy centered browsers a few years ago. I would say over the last 8 to 12 months I finally started to see it pay off. I still don’t see a lot of ads if ever, and they are wildly off target when I do see them. Using email aliases that I regularly purge has also made a huge difference when it comes to password/info leaks in particular.
Now if I could only get my damn phone number under control… so tired of the endless spam texts
Try deleting your account with the delete button. Nothing happens. Everything on the site perfect, just that Delete button is broken (and the request times out).
But wait, you can send a ticket. Get response days later that it is marked as resolved.
You go back to the site ... O, i am still logged in with my old session.
Then you see your email: deleted_2544642405_blabla@gmail.com
So fake "delete" by simply putting a deleted and some timestamp before your email address, while keeping your other data.
O and the Delete button is also not fixed ;)
Companies really only seem to learn with some hefty GDPR fines.
The ones that do take the time to reply usually say "We've deleted your personal data now", which is not at all what I want. I want to know what details they have about me, where they obtained it, and why they think spamming me is acceptable.
I've got a folder where I keep printouts of the recent offenders, and once I get a few weeks of holiday I'll start filing small-claims cases against them.
A rare case of doing God's work at a profit!
What do you get back from giving that?