Think about how often you enter information about yourself online. It might be when you order food, sign up for a free trial, or pay a bill.
Those are first party relationships, and a lot of those companies keep the data they collect about you.
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Data brokers also collect information about you, then sell it for things like advertising.
All that is legal.
“The average person is in far more databases than they realize,” said Aaron Mendes, CEO and co-founder of data removal service PrivacyHawk.
The more places your information is stored, the higher the chances it gets compromised in a data breach. Removing info can lower your risk.
“Ultimately it reduces your risk of being in data breaches,” said Mendes. “Which is the root cause of all these scams and identity theft, is them getting a hold of personal data about us that you don't want them to have.”
You can ask data brokers, people search sites and individual companies you no longer have a relationship with to stop sharing or remove your data.
Often on the bottom of the home page, you’ll find a link labeled 'Opt Out' or 'Do Not Sell My Personal Information.'
Make sure to keep a list of sites you’ve opted out of; you’ll want to check again later to make sure your information is really deleted.
Consumer Reports says it’s a good idea to go through the entire opt-out process about twice a year.
There are also paid services that will do that for you.
Consumer Reports tested some services here.
More recently, PCMag listed their top tested picks here.