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Do yourself a favor: Open a new browser tab and head to your search engine of choice. Type in your full name and home address. Then, see what pops up.
Are the results sparking an ember of unease in the back of your brain? Whether you’re a private person online or you’re comfortable sharing your daily life updates on social media, there are likely to be several personal details about you on sites that shouldn’t have that information. Some of these sites may be data brokerage websites.
Data brokerage sites are legal and are mostly used by annoying advertisers, though cybercriminals may also use them maliciously. The average person has their information for sale on 31 data brokerage sites, and 95% of people have their personal information on sale without their permission.
So how do you scrub the internet of your personal details to keep your identity secure? McAfee Personal Data Cleanup is a service that prevents your personal information from being collected and sold online. Here’s why you should consider taking a few easy steps now to give you peace of mind about the security of your personally identifiable information (PII).
Attack surface is a term usually applied to corporate security, but it’s a great visualization for everyday people going about their personal online errands and entertainment. An attack surface is the number of possible entry points a cybercriminal could weasel their way through to get at your valuable and private information. Entry points include your social media profiles, your online shopping accounts, and data brokerage sites. The fewer entry points you have, the harder it is for cybercriminals to find and exploit them.
While Social Security Numbers (SSNs) are generally revered as the piece of PII to guard most closely, a cybercriminal can still damage your identity with just your name and an address, email address, or phone number. For example, they can request new passwords or multifactor authentication one-time passcodes to break their way into online banking or shopping accounts. Security breaches are happening to huge companies all over the world. All it takes is for your SSN to be leaked in one of them, for a cybercriminal to piece together your digital clone and use it to harm your identity or credit.
Personal Data Cleanup minimizes your attack surface by removing as much PII as possible that’s floating around the internet, just waiting for someone to buy it.
When you’re aware of how many unauthorized vendors are selling your PII, it could be the wakeup call you need start adopting more cautious online habits. For instance, oversharing on social media leaks a lot of valuable details that a savvy criminal can then use to take educated guesses at your passwords or craft a social engineering plot catered just to you.
The present is as good a time as any to start protecting your identity for the future; however, getting started is often the most difficult step. It can seem overwhelming to reach out to every data brokerage site individually and request they remove your info. Personal Data Cleanup can be your partner not only in beginning the cleanup process but in monitoring your data security to keep your online presence as minimal as possible. The service scans the internet’s riskiest sites and then, before deleting your information from these sites, runs it by you to confirm. Then, it will continually monitor those same sites, as your information will likely reappear every two to four months.
Do not underestimate the tenacity of a cybercriminal. Even for people who have the attitude that their PII is bound to be somewhere online and that it’s no big deal, McAfee Personal Data Cleanup manages three key steps in the data removal process: scanning, removing, and monitoring. So, even if you’re not convinced that data brokerage sites are a threat, the process is too easy to put off any longer!
For those who are concerned about their online privacy, full-service Personal Data Cleanup is included in McAfee+ Ultimate, which is the complete package to let you live your online life in private. McAfee+ Ultimate also includes identity monitoring and identity theft resolution services, unlimited VPN, credit lock, and much more.
In 2021, more than 1.4 million identity theft complaints were filed to the Federal Trade Commission.1 Identity theft can occur to anyone, so take steps today, starting with data brokerage sites, to live a more secure and more private digital life.
1Federal Trade Commission, “New Data Shows FTC Received 2.8 Million Fraud Reports from Consumers in 2021”
The post McAfee Personal Data Cleanup: Your Partner in Living a More Private Online Life appeared first on McAfee Blog.
We’re excited to announce the release of McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup, a new feature that finds and removes your personal info from data brokers and people search sites. Now, you can feel more confident by removing personal info from data broker sites and keeping it from being collected, sold, and used to: advertise products to you, fill your email box with spam, and can even give criminals the info they need to steal your identity. Let’s look at why we’re offering McAfee Personal Data Cleanup, how it protects your privacy, and why it’s a great addition to the online protection we already offer.
There’s so much to enjoy when you live a connected life – free email, online stores that remember what you like, social media that connects you to friends and influencers. It’s a world of convenience, opportunity, and incredible content. It’s also a world where your data is constantly collected.
That’s right, companies are collecting your personal data. They’re called data brokers and they make money by selling information that specifically identifies you, like an email address. They sell this information to marketers looking to target you with ads. Criminals can also use it to build profiles in service of stealing your identity and accessing your accounts. This activity takes place behind the scenes and often without consumers’ knowledge. There are also data brokers known as people search sites that compile and sell info like home addresses, emails, phones, court records, employment info, and more. These websites give identity thieves, hackers, stalkers, and other malicious actors easy access to your info. Regardless of how your data is being used, it’s clear that these days a more connected life often comes at the cost of your privacy.
In a recent survey of McAfee customers, we found that 59% have become more protective of their personal data over the past six months. And it’s no wonder. Over the past two years, trends like telehealth, remote working, and increased usage of online shopping and financial services have meant that more of your time is being spent online. Unsurprisingly, more personal data is being made available in the process. This leads us to the most alarming finding of our survey – 95% of consumers whose personal information ends up on data broker sites had it collected without their consent.
We created Personal Data Cleanup to make it easy for you to take back your privacy online. McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup regularly scans the riskiest data broker sites for info like your home address, date of birth, and names of relatives. After showing where we found your data, you can either remove it yourself or we will work on your behalf to remove it. Here’s how it works:
Ready to take back your personal info online? Personal Data Cleanup is available immediately with most of our online protection plans. If you have an eligible subscription, you can start using this new feature through McAfee Protection Center, or you can get McAfee online protection here.
The post Introducing Personal Data Cleanup appeared first on McAfee Blog.
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