America’s AI Action Plan outlines a comprehensive strategy for the country’s leadership in AI. The plan seeks, in part, to accelerate AI adoption in the federal government. However, there is a gap in that vision: agencies have been slow to adopt AI tools to better serve the public. The biggest barrier to adopting and scaling trustworthy AI isn’t policy or compute power — it’s the foundation beneath the surface. How agencies store, access and govern their records will determine whether AI succeeds or stalls. Those records aren’t just for retention purposes; they are the fuel AI models need to power operational efficiencies through streamlined workflows and uncover mission insights that enable timely, accurate decisions. Without robust digitalization and data governance, federal records cannot serve as the reliable fuel AI models need to drive innovation.

Before AI adoption can take hold, agencies must do something far less glamorous but absolutely essential: modernize their records. Many still need to automate records management, beginning with opening archival boxes, assessing what is inside, and deciding what is worth keeping. This essential process transforms inaccessible, unstructured records into structured, connected datasets that AI models can actually use. Without it, agencies are not just delaying AI adoption, they’re building on a poor foundation that will collapse under the weight of daily mission demands.

If you do not know the contents of the box, how confident can you be that the records aren’t crucial to automating a process with AI? In AI terms, if you enlist the help of a model like OpenAI, the results will only be as good as the digitized data behind it. The greater the knowledge base, the faster AI can be adopted and scaled to positively impact public service. Here is where agencies can start preparing their records — their knowledge base — to lay a defensible foundation for AI adoption.

Step 1: Inventory and prioritize what you already have

Many agencies are sitting on decades’ worth of records, housed in a mix of storage boxes, shared drives, aging databases, and under-governed digital repositories. These records often lack consistent metadata, classification tags or digital traceability, making them difficult to find, harder to govern, and nearly impossible to automate.

This fragmentation is not new. According to NARA’s 2023 FEREM report, only 61% of agencies were rated as low-risk in their management of electronic records — indicating that many still face gaps in easily accessible records, digitalization and data governance. This leaves thousands of unstructured repositories vulnerable to security risks and unable to be fed into an AI model. A comprehensive inventory allows agencies to see what they have, determine what is mission-critical, and prioritize records cleanup. Not everything needs to be digitalized. But everything needs to be accounted for. This early triage is what ensures digitalization, automation and analytics are focused on the right things, maximizing return while minimizing risk.

Without this step, agencies risk building powerful AI models on unreliable data, a setup that undermines outcomes and invites compliance pitfalls.

Step 2: Make digitalization the bedrock of modernization

One of the biggest misconceptions around modernization is that digitalization is a tactical compliance task with limited strategic value. In reality, digitalization is what turns idle content into usable data. It’s the on-ramp to AI driven automation across the agency, including one-click records management and data-driven policymaking.

By focusing on high-impact records — those that intersect with mission-critical workflows, the Freedom of Information Act, cybersecurity enforcement or policy enforcement — agencies can start to build a foundation that’s not just compliant, but future-ready. These records form the connective tissue between systems, workforce, data and decisions.

The Government Accountability Office estimates that up to 80% of federal IT budgets are still spent maintaining legacy systems. Resources that, if reallocated, could help fund strategic digitalization and unlock real efficiency gains. The opportunity cost of delay is increasing exponentially everyday.

Step 3: Align records governance with AI strategy

Modern AI adoption isn’t just about models and computation; it’s about trust, traceability, and compliance. That’s why strong information governance is essential.

Agencies moving fastest on AI are pairing records management modernization with evolving governance frameworks, synchronizing classification structures, retention schedules and access controls with broader digital strategies. The Office of Management and Budget’s 2025 AI Risk Management guidance is clear: explainability, reliability and auditability must be built in from the start.

When AI deployment evolves in step with a diligent records management program centered on data governance, agencies are better positioned to accelerate innovation, build public trust, and avoid costly rework. For example, labeling records with standardized metadata from the outset enables rapid, digital retrieval during audits or investigations, a need that’s only increasing as AI use expands. This alignment is critical as agencies adopt FedRAMP Moderate-certified platforms to run sensitive workloads and meet compliance requirements. These platforms raise the baseline for performance and security, but they only matter if the data moving through them is usable, well-governed and reliable.

Infrastructure integrity: The hidden foundation of AI

Strengthening the digital backbone is only half of the modernization equation. Agencies must also ensure the physical infrastructure supporting their systems can withstand growing operational, environmental, and cybersecurity demands.

Colocation data centers play a critical role in this continuity — offering secure, federally compliant environments that safeguard sensitive data and maintain uptime for mission-critical systems. These facilities provide the stability, scalability and redundancy needed to sustain AI-driven workloads, bridging the gap between digital transformation and operational resilience.

By pairing strong information governance with resilient colocation infrastructure, agencies can create a true foundation for AI, one that ensures innovation isn’t just possible, but sustainable in even the most complex mission environments.

Melissa Carson is general manager for Iron Mountain Government Solutions.

The post Three steps to build a data foundation for federal AI innovation first appeared on Federal News Network.

© Getty Images/iStockphoto/FlashMovie

We recently looked at Tiny vinyl, a new miniature vinyl single format developed through a collaboration between a toy industry veteran and the world’s largest vinyl record manufacturer. The 4-inch singles are pressed in a process nearly identical to standard 12-inch LPs or 7-inch singles, except everything is smaller. They have a standard-size spindle hole and play at 33⅓ RPM, and they hold up to four minutes of music per side.

Several smaller bands, like The Band Loula and Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and some industry veterans like Blake Shelton and Melissa Etheridge, have already experimented with the format. But Tiny Vinyl partnered with US retail giant Target for its big coming-out party this fall, with 44 exclusive titles launching throughout the end of this year.

Tiny Vinyl supplied a few promotional copies of releases from former America’s Got Talent finalist Grace VanderWaal, The Band Loula, country pop stars Florida Georgia Line, and jazz legends the Vince Guaraldi Trio so I could get a first-hand look at how the records actually play. I tested these titles as well as several others I picked up at retail, playing them on an Audio Technica LP-120 direct drive manual turntable connected to a Yamaha S-301 integrated amplifier and playing through a pair of vintage Klipsch kg4 speakers.

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© Chris Foresman

The U.S.-China robot race is getting more literal.

• The Trump administration said it’s finished updating federal employee records to remove some of the negative consequences of this year’s mass firing of probationary employees. Federal agencies say the personnel records have all been updated to reflect the fact that those workers were not fired for performance reasons. That step was ordered by a federal judge, who found agencies wrongly asserted that employees’ terminations were connected to their performance.
  (Trump administration says it's finished updated probationary employee files - Department of Justice)
• The Postal Service is starting fiscal 2026 with more red ink. USPS said it ended October with a $545 million net loss. That’s more than double the net loss it projected for the month. USPS ended fiscal 2025 with a $9 billion net loss. The agency is heading into its busy peak season, which is also when it brings in the most revenue.
  (USPS preliminary financial information - USPS)
• Recent reporting stating that the Department of Government Efficiency is dead has sparked some pushback from the Trump administration. Rather than DOGE being fully non-existent, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said DOGE has simply taken on a new form. President Donald Trump’s initiative to cut the government’s size and spending may no longer have centralized leadership, but Kupor said the emphasis on efficiency remains “alive and well.”
  (Update on DOGE - Office of Personnel Management)
• Democratic lawmakers say agencies aren’t reinstating as many federal employees as they should be. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is leading the push for more RIF rescissions, along with several of his Democratic colleagues. They say employees who received reduction in force (RIF) notices before the government shutdown, but were on track to be officially separated from their agencies during the shutdown, should get their jobs back. This would all happen under layoff protection language in the spending bill Congress passed to end the funding lapse. Kaine was one of eight Democratic senators who broke ranks to pass the stopgap spending bill, only after Republicans agreed to include language that would protect federal employees from layoffs at least through Jan. 30, 2026.
  (Lawmakers say agencies aren’t reinstating enough laid-off employees under shutdown-ending deal - Federal News Network)
• A major update to one of the government’s largest data assets is on the horizon. The exact launch date for a new version of the Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope is unclear. But the agency said testing and development of the new website is underway, and a launch is “imminent.” Generally, the agency estimated that a new website for federal workforce data to replace FedScope would be published sometime “shortly after the new year.”
  (FedScope update “imminent” - Office of Personnel Management)
• A new audit found that the Defense Department failed to properly manage its financial reporting system after retiring 10 finance and accounting systems. The Pentagon’s office of inspector general said the reporting system continued using data from 57 obsolete files which contained $4.2 trillion in balances that were not required for Treasury reporting and served no financial purpose. This happened because the Defense Finance and Accounting Service did not archive balances from retired financial management systems and did not fully migrate required information into active systems. Auditors warn that this unnecessary and unsupported data is complicating an already difficult reporting process and could hinder the Pentagon’s ability to achieve a clean audit by 2028. The inspector general issued six recommendations, including archiving unused balances and ensuring required data is properly transferred and documented.
  (DoD failed to manage data after retiring ten financial management systems - Defense Department IG)
• President Trump is pushing a new initiative to use AI to solve engineering, energy and national security problems. An executive order the president signed yesterday launches what the White House is calling the “Genesis Mission.” The EO outlines a framework for collaboration between federal agencies, research institutions and private sector companies. The order tells the Energy Department and national labs to build a digital platform to concentrate the nation’s scientific data in one place.
  (New EO launches "Genesis Mission" AI initiative - Associated Press)
• Navy Secretary John Phelan is inviting venture capital firms and private investors to participate in an industry event introducing the Department of the Navy’s newly established Rapid Capabilities Office. The two-day event will cover the service’s most urgent operational challenges and how the new office plans to work with industry to solve those pressing issues. The first industry day, which will take place on Dec. 9, will be open to venture capital firms and technology companies. The second, classified session on Dec. 10 will welcome the investment community. The service is encouraging both existing and new industry partners to participate.
  (Navy opens door to venture capital firms, investors - SAM.gov)

 

The post Trump administration finalizes updating federal employee records first appeared on Federal News Network.

© AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Chances are, you have more personal information posted online than you think.

In 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that 1.1 million identity theft complaints were filed, where $12.5 billion was lost to identity theft and fraud overall—a 25% increase over the year prior.

What fuels all this theft and fraud? Easy access to personal information.

Here’s one way you can reduce your chances of identity theft: remove your personal information from the internet.

Scammers and thieves can get a hold of your personal information in several ways, such as information leaked in data breaches, phishing attacks that lure you into handing it over, malware that steals it from your devices, or by purchasing your information on dark web marketplaces, just to name a few.

However, scammers and thieves have other resources and connections to help them commit theft and fraud—data broker sites, places where personal information is posted online for practically anyone to see. This makes removing your info from these sites so important, from both an identity and privacy standpoint.

Data brokers: Collectors and aggregators of your information

Data broker sites are massive repositories of personal information that also buy information from other data brokers. As a result, some data brokers have thousands of pieces of data on billions of individuals worldwide.

What kind of data could they have on you? A broker may know how much you paid for your home, your education level, where you’ve lived over the years, who you’ve lived with, your driving record, and possibly your political leanings. A broker could even know your favorite flavor of ice cream and your preferred over-the-counter allergy medicine thanks to information from loyalty cards. They may also have health-related information from fitness apps. The amount of personal information can run that broadly, and that deeply.

With information at this level of detail, it’s no wonder that data brokers rake in an estimated $200 billion worldwide every year.

Sources of your information

Your personal information reaches the internet through six main methods, most of which are initiated by activities you perform every day. Understanding these channels can help you make more informed choices about your digital footprint.

Digitized public records

When you buy a home, register to vote, get married, or start a business, government agencies create public records that contain your personal details. These records, once stored in filing cabinets, are now digitized, accessible online, and searchable by anyone with an internet connection.

Social media sharing and privacy gaps

Every photo you post, location you tag, and profile detail you share contributes to your digital presence. Even with privacy settings enabled, social media platforms collect extensive data about your behavior, relationships, and preferences. You may not realize it, but every time you share details with your network, you are training algorithms that analyze and categorize your information.

Data breaches

You create accounts with retailers, healthcare providers, employers, and service companies, trusting them to protect your information. However, when hackers breach these systems, your personal information often ends up for sale on dark web marketplaces, where data brokers can purchase it. The Identity Theft Research Center Annual Data Breach Report revealed that 2024 saw the second-highest number of data compromises in the U.S. since the organization began recording incidents in 2005.

Apps and ad trackers

When you browse, shop, or use apps, your online behavior is recorded by tracking pixels, cookies, and software development kits. The data collected—such as your location, device usage, and interests—is packaged and sold to data brokers who combine it with other sources to build a profile of you.

Loyalty programs

Grocery store cards, coffee shop apps, and airline miles programs offer discounts in exchange for detailed purchasing information. Every transaction gets recorded, analyzed, and often shared with third-party data brokers, who then create detailed lifestyle profiles that are sold to marketing companies.

Data broker aggregators

Data brokers act as the hubs that collect information from the various sources to create comprehensive profiles that may include over 5,000 data points per person. Seemingly separate pieces of information become a detailed digital dossier that reveals intimate details about your life, relationships, health, and financial situation.

The users of your information

Legally, your aggregated information from data brokers is used by advertisers to create targeted ad campaigns. In addition, law enforcement, journalists, and employers may use data brokers because the time-consuming pre-work of assembling your data has largely been done.

Currently, the U.S. has no federal laws that regulate data brokers or require them to remove personal information if requested. Only a few states, such as Nevada, Vermont, and California, have legislation that protects consumers. In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has stricter rules about what information can be collected and what can be done with it.

On the darker side, scammers and thieves use personal information for identity theft and fraud. With enough information, they can create a high-fidelity profile of their victims to open new accounts in their name. For this reason, cleaning up your personal information online makes a great deal of sense.

Types of personal details to remove online

Understanding which data types pose the greatest threat can help you prioritize your removal efforts. Here are the high-risk personal details you should target first, ranked by their potential for harm.

Highest priority: Identity theft goldmines

• Social Security Number (SSN) with full name and address: This combination provides everything criminals need for identity theft, leading to fraudulent credit accounts, tax refund theft, and employment fraud that may take years to resolve, according to the FTC.
• Financial account information: Bank account numbers, credit card details, and investment account information enable direct financial theft. Even partial account numbers can be valuable when combined with other personal details from data breaches.
• Driver’s license and government-issued ID information: These serve as primary identity verification for many services and can be used to bypass security measures at financial institutions and government agencies.

High priority: Personal identifiers

• Full name combined with home address: This pairing makes you vulnerable to targeted scams and physical threats, while enabling criminals to gather additional information about your household and family members.
• Date of birth: Often used as a security verification method, your DOB combined with other identifiers can unlock accounts and enable age-related targeting for scams.
• Phone numbers: This information enables SIM swapping, where criminals take control of your phone number to bypass two-factor authentication and access your accounts.

Medium-high priority: Digital and health data

• Email addresses: Your primary email serves as the master key to password resets across multiple accounts, while secondary emails can reveal personal interests and connections that criminals exploit in social engineering.
• Medical and health app data: This is highly sensitive information that can be used for insurance discrimination, employment issues, or targeted health-related scams.
• Location data and photos with metadata: Reveals your daily patterns, workplace, home address, and frequented locations. Photos with embedded GPS coordinates can expose your exact whereabouts and enable stalking or burglary.

Medium priority: Account access points

• Usernames and account handles: These help criminals map your digital footprint across platforms to discover your personal interests, connections, and even potential security questions answers. They also enable account impersonation and social engineering against your contacts.

When prioritizing your personal information removal efforts, focus on combinations of data rather than individual pieces. For example, your name alone poses minimal risk, but your name combined with your address, phone number, and date of birth creates a comprehensive profile that criminals can exploit. Tools such as McAfee Personal Data Cleanup can help you identify and remove these high-risk combinations from data broker sites systematically.

Step-by-step guide to finding your personal data online

1. Targeted search queries: Search for your full name in quotes (“John Smith”), then combine it with your city, phone number, or email address. Try variations like “John Smith” + “123 Main Street” or “John Smith” + “555-0123”. Don’t forget to search for old usernames, maiden names, or nicknames you’ve used online. Aside from Google, you can also check Bing, DuckDuckGo, and people search engines.
2. Major data broker and people search sites: Search for yourself in common data aggregators: Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, Intelius, PeopleFinder, and Radaris. Take screenshots of what you find as documentation. To make this process manageable, McAfee Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.
3. Social media platforms and old accounts: Review your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other platforms for publicly visible personal details. Check old accounts—dating sites, forums, gaming platforms, or professional networks. Look for biographical information, location data, contact details, photos, and even comment sections where you may have shared details.
4. Breach and dark web monitoring tools: Have I Been Pwned and other identity monitoring services can help you scan the dark web and discover if your email addresses or phone numbers appear in data breaches.
5. Ongoing monitoring alerts: Create weekly Google Alerts for your and your family member’s full name, address combinations, and phone number. Some specialized monitoring services can track once your information appears on new data broker sites or gets updated on existing ones.
6. Document everything in a tracker: Create a spreadsheet or document to systematically track your findings. Include the website name and URL, the specific data shown, contact information for removal requests, date of your opt-out request, and follow-up dates. Many sites require multiple follow-ups, so having this organized record is essential for successful removal.

This process takes time and persistence, but services such as McAfee Personal Data Cleanup can continuously monitor for new exposures and manage opt-out requests on your behalf. The key is to first understand the full scope of your online presence before beginning the removal process.

Remove your personal information from the internet

Let’s review some ways you can remove your personal information from data brokers and other sources on the internet.

Request to remove data from data broker sites

Once you have found the sites that have your information, the next step is to request to have it removed. You can do this yourself or employ services such as McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup, which can help manage the removal for you depending on your subscription. ​It also monitors those sites, so if your info gets posted again, you can request its removal again.

Limit the data Google collects

You can request to remove your name from Google search to limit your information from turning up in searches. You can also turn on “Auto Delete” in your privacy settings to ensure your data is deleted regularly. Occasionally deleting your cookies or browsing in incognito mode prevents websites from tracking you. If Google denies your initial request, you can appeal using the same tool, providing more context, documentation, or legal grounds for removal. Google’s troubleshooter tool may explain why your request was denied—either legitimate public interest or newsworthiness—and how to improve your appeal.

It’s important to know that the original content remains on the source website. You’ll still need to contact website owners directly to have your actual content removed. Additionally, the information may still appear in other search engines.

Delete old social media accounts

If you have old, inactive accounts that have gone by the wayside such as Myspace or Tumblr, you may want to deactivate or delete them entirely. For social media platforms that you use regularly, such as Facebook and Instagram, consider adjusting your privacy settings to keep your personal information to the bare minimum.

Remove personal info from websites and blogs

If you’ve ever published articles, written blogs, or created any content online, it is a good time to consider taking them down if they no longer serve a purpose. If you were mentioned or tagged by other people, it is worth requesting them to take down posts with sensitive information.

Delete unused apps and restrict permissions in those you use

Another way to tidy up your digital footprint is to delete phone apps you no longer use as hackers are able to track personal information on these and sell it. As a rule, share as little information with apps as possible using your phone’s settings.

Remove your info from other search engines

• Bing: Submit removal requests through Bing’s Content Removal tool for specific personal information like addresses, phone numbers, or sensitive data. Note that Bing primarily crawls and caches content from other websites, so removing the original source content first will prevent re-indexing.
• Yahoo: Yahoo Search results are powered by Bing, so use the same Bing Content Removal process. For Yahoo-specific services, contact their support team to request removal of cached pages and personal information from search results.
• DuckDuckGo and other privacy-focused engines: These search engines don’t store personal data or create profiles, but pull results from multiple sources. We suggest that you focus on removing content from the original source websites, then request the search engines to update their cache to prevent your information from reappearing in future crawls.

Escalate if needed

After sending your removal request, give the search engine or source website 7 to 10 business days to respond initially, then follow up weekly if needed. If a website owner doesn’t respond within 30 days or refuses your request, you have several escalation options:

• Contact the hosting provider: Web hosts often have policies against sites that violate privacy laws
• File complaints: Report to your state attorney general’s office or the Federal Trade Commission
• Seek legal guidance: For persistent cases involving sensitive information, consult with a privacy attorney

For comprehensive guidance on website takedown procedures and your legal rights, visit the FTC’s privacy and security guidance for the most current information on consumer data protection. Direct website contact can be time-consuming, but it’s often effective for removing information from smaller sites that don’t appear on major data broker opt-out lists. Stay persistent, document everything, and remember that you have legal rights to protect your privacy online.

Remove your information from browsers

After you’ve cleaned up your data from websites and social platforms, your web browsers may still save personal information such as your browsing history, cookies, autofill data, saved passwords, and even payment methods. Clearing this information and adjusting your privacy settings helps prevent tracking, reduces targeted ads, and limits how much personal data websites can collect about you.

• Clear your cache: Clearing your browsing data is usually done by going to Settings and looking for the Privacy and Security section, depending on the specific browser. This is applicable in Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, as well as mobile phone operating systems such as Android and iOS.

• Disable autofill: Autofill gives you the convenience of not having to type your information every time you accomplish a form. That convenience has a risk, though—autofill saves addresses, phone numbers, and even payment methods. To prevent websites from automatically populating forms with your sensitive data, disable the autofill settings independently. For better security, consider using a dedicated password manager instead of browser-based password storage.
• Set up automatic privacy protection: Set up your browsers to automatically clear cookies, cache, and site data when you close them. This ensures your browsing sessions don’t leave permanent traces of your personal information on your device.
• Use privacy-focused search engines: Evaluate the possibility of using privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo as your default. These proactive steps significantly reduce how much personal information browsers collect and store about your online activities.

Get your address off the internet

When your home address is publicly available, it can expose you to risks like identity theft, stalking, or targeted scams. Taking steps to remove or mask your address across data broker sites, public records, and even old social media profiles helps protect your privacy, reduce unwanted contact, and keep your personal life more secure.

1. Opt out of major data broker sites: The biggest address exposers are Whitepages, Spokeo, and BeenVerified. Visit their opt-out pages and submit removal requests using your full name and current address. Most sites require email verification and process removals within 7-14 business days.
2. Contact public records offices about address redaction: Many county and state databases allow address redaction for safety reasons. File requests with your local clerk’s office, voter registration office, and property records department. Complete removal isn’t always possible, but some jurisdictions offer partial address masking.
3. Enable WHOIS privacy protection on domain registrations: If you own any websites or domains, request your domain registrar to add privacy protection services to replace your personal address with the registrar’s information.
4. Review old forum and social media profiles: Check your profiles on forums, professional networks, and social platforms where you may have shared your address years ago. Delete or edit posts containing location details, and update bio sections to remove specific address information.
5. Verify removal progress: Every month, do a search of your name and address variations on different search engines. You also can set up Google Alerts to monitor and alert you when new listings appear. Most data broker removals need to be renewed every 6-12 months as information gets re-aggregated.

The cost to delete your information from the internet

The cost to remove your personal information from the internet varies, depending on whether you do it yourself or use a professional service. Read the guide below to help you make an informed decision:

DIY approach

Removing your information on your own primarily requires time investment. Expect to spend 20 to 40 hours looking for your information online and submitting removal requests. In terms of financial costs, most data brokers may not charge for opting out, but other expenses could include certified mail fees for formal removal requests—about $3-$8 per letter—and possibly notarization fees for legal documents. In total, this effort can be substantial when dealing with dozens of sites.

Professional removal services

Depending on which paid removal and monitoring service you employ, basic plans typically range from $8 to $25 monthly while annual plans, which often provide better value, range from $100 to $600. Premium services that monitor hundreds of data broker sites and provide ongoing removal can cost $1,200-$2,400 annually.

The difference in pricing is driven by several factors. This includes the number of data broker sites to be monitored, which could cover more than 200 sites, and the scope of removal requests which may include basic personal information or comprehensive family protection. The monitoring frequency and additional features such as dark web monitoring, credit protection, and identity restoration support and insurance coverage typically command higher prices.

The value of continuous monitoring

The upfront cost may seem significant, but continuous monitoring provides essential value. A McAfee survey revealed that 95% of consumers’ personal information ends up on data broker sites without their consent. It is possible that after the successful removal of your information, it may reappear on data broker sites without ongoing monitoring. This makes continuous protection far more cost-effective than repeated one-time cleanups.

Services such as McAfee Personal Data Cleanup can prove invaluable, as it handles the initial removal process, as well as ongoing monitoring to catch when your information resurfaces, saving you time and effort while offering long-term privacy protection.

Aside from the services above, comprehensive protection software can help safeguard your privacy and minimize your exposure to cybercrime with these offerings such as:

• An unlimited virtual private network to make your personal information much more difficult to collect and track
• Identity monitoring that tracks and alerts you if your specific personal information is found on the dark web
• Identity theft coverage and restoration helps you pay for legal fees and travel expenses, and further assistance from a licensed recovery pro to repair your identity and credit
• Other features such as safe browsing to help you avoid dangerous links, bad downloads, malicious websites, and more online threats when you’re online

So while it may seem like all this rampant collecting and selling of personal information is out of your hands, there’s plenty you can do to take control. With the steps outlined above and strong online protection software at your back, you can keep your personal information more private and secure.

Essential steps if your information is found on the dark web

Unlike legitimate data broker sites, the dark web operates outside legal boundaries where takedown requests don’t apply. Rather than trying to remove information that’s already circulating, you can take immediate steps to reduce the potential harm and focus on preventing future exposure. A more effective approach is to treat data breaches as ongoing security issues rather than one-time events.

Both the FTC and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have released guidelines on proactive controls and continuous monitoring. Here are key steps of those recommendations:

1. Change your passwords immediately and enable multi-factor authentication. Start with your most critical accounts—banking, email, and any services linked to financial information. Create unique, strong passwords for each account and enable MFA where possible for an extra layer of protection.
2. Monitor your financial accounts and credit reports closely. Check your bank statements, credit card accounts, and investment accounts for any unauthorized activity. Request your free annual credit reports from all three major bureaus and carefully review them for accounts you didn’t open or activities you don’t recognize.
3. Place fraud alerts or credit freezes. Contact Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to place fraud alerts, which require creditors to verify your identity before approving new accounts. Better yet, consider a credit freeze to block access to your credit report entirely until you lift it.
4. Replace compromised identification documents if necessary. If your Social Security number, driver’s license, or passport information was exposed, contact the appropriate agencies to report the breach and request new documents. IdentityTheft.gov provides step-by-step guidance for replacing compromised documents.
5. Set up ongoing identity monitoring and protection. Consider using identity monitoring services that scan the dark web and alert you to new exposures of your personal information.
6. Document everything and report the incident. Keep detailed records of any suspicious activities you discover and all steps you’ve taken. File a report with the FTC and police, especially if you’ve experienced financial losses. This documentation will be crucial for disputing fraudulent charges or accounts.

Legal and practical roadblocks

As you go about removing your information for the internet, it is important to set realistic expectations. Several factors may limit how completely you can remove personal data from internet sources:

• The United States lacks comprehensive federal privacy laws requiring companies to delete personal information upon request.
• Public records, court documents, and news articles often have legal protections that prevent removal.
• International websites may not comply with U.S. deletion requests.
• Cached copies could remain on search engines and archival sites for years.
• Data brokers frequently repopulate their databases from new sources even after opt-outs.

While some states like California have stronger consumer privacy rights, most data removal still depends on voluntary compliance from companies.

Final thoughts

Removing your personal information from the internet takes effort, but it’s one of the most effective ways to protect yourself from identity theft and privacy violations. The steps outlined above provide you with a clear roadmap to systematically reduce your online exposure, from opting out of data brokers to tightening your social media privacy settings.

This isn’t a one-time task but an ongoing process that requires regular attention, as new data appears online constantly. Rather than attempting to complete digital erasure, focus on reducing your exposure to the most harmful uses of your personal information. Services like McAfee Personal Data Cleanup can help automate the most time-consuming parts of this process, monitoring high-risk data broker sites and managing removal requests for you.

The post How to Remove Your Personal Information From the Internet appeared first on McAfee Blog.

Welcome to the original pumpkin record page. This is the official page identifying the heaviest pumpkins in the world per country. This is the current 2022 list of the Top 10 largest pumpkins grown to date.  The majority of these pumpkins were grown in Europe and the UK, but only 4 of the pumpkins were grown in the USA.  Europe […]

The post Top 10 Largest Pumpkins in the World & Country Records appeared first on Backyard Gardener.

Data Privacy Week is here, and there’s no better time to shine a spotlight on one of the biggest players in the personal information economy: data brokers. These entities collect, buy, and sell hundreds—sometimes thousands—of data points on individuals like you. But how do they manage to gather so much information, and for what purpose? From your browsing habits and purchase history to your location data and even more intimate details, these digital middlemen piece together surprisingly comprehensive profiles. The real question is: where are they getting it all, and why is your personal data so valuable to them? Let’s unravel the mystery behind the data broker industry.

What are data brokers?

Data brokers aggregate user info from various sources on the internet. They collect, collate, package, and sometimes even analyze this data to create a holistic and coherent version of you online. This data then gets put up for sale to nearly anyone who’ll buy it. That can include marketers, private investigators, tech companies, and sometimes law enforcement as well. They’ll also sell to spammers and scammers. (Those bad actors need to get your contact info from somewhere — data brokers are one way to get that and more.)

And that list of potential buyers goes on, which includes but isn’t limited to:

• Tech platforms
• Banks
• Insurance companies
• Political consultancies
• Marketing firms
• Retailers
• Crime-fighting bureaus
• Investigation bureaus
• Video streaming service providers
• Any other businesses involved in sales

These companies and social media platforms use your data to better understand target demographics and the content with which they interact. While the practice isn’t unethical in and of itself (personalizing user experiences and creating more convenient UIs are usually cited as the primary reasons for it), it does make your data vulnerable to malicious attacks targeted toward big-tech servers.

How do data brokers get your information?

Most of your online activities are related. Devices like your phone, laptop, tablets, and even fitness watches are linked to each other. Moreover, you might use one email ID for various accounts and subscriptions. This online interconnectedness makes it easier for data brokers to create a cohesive user profile.

Mobile phone apps are the most common way for data brokerage firms to collect your data. You might have countless apps for various purposes, such as financial transactions, health and fitness, or social media.

A number of these apps usually fall under the umbrella of the same or subsidiary family of apps, all of which work toward collecting and supplying data to big tech platforms. Programs like Google’s AdSense make it easier for developers to monetize their apps in exchange for the user information they collect.

Data brokers also collect data points like your home address, full name, phone number, and date of birth. They have automated scraping tools to quickly collect relevant information from public records (think sales of real estate, marriages, divorces, voter registration, and so on).

Lastly, data brokers can gather data from other third parties that track your cookies or even place trackers or cookies on your browsers. Cookies are small data files that track your online activities when visiting different websites. They track your IP address and browsing history, which third parties can exploit. Cookies are also the reason you see personalized ads and products.

How data brokers sell your identity

Data brokers collate your private information into one package and sell it to “people search” websites. As mentioned above, practically anyone can access these websites and purchase extensive consumer data, for groups of people and individuals alike.

Next, marketing and sales firms are some of data brokers’ biggest clients. These companies purchase massive data sets from data brokers to research your data profile. They have advanced algorithms to segregate users into various consumer groups and target you specifically. Their predictive algorithms can suggest personalized ads and products to generate higher lead generation and conversation percentages for their clients.

Are data brokers legal?

We tend to accept the terms and conditions that various apps ask us to accept without thinking twice or reading the fine print. You probably cannot proceed without letting the app track certain data or giving your personal information. To a certain extent, we trade some of our privacy for convenience. This becomes public information, and apps and data brokers collect, track, and use our data however they please while still complying with the law.

There is no comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. on a federal level. This allows data brokers to collect personal information and condense it into marketing insights. While not all methods of gathering private data are legal, it is difficult to track the activities of data brokers online (especially on the dark web). As technology advances, there are also easier ways to harvest and exploit data.

As of March 2024, 15 states in the U.S. have data privacy laws in place. That includes California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Oregon, Montana, Texas, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.[i] The laws vary by state, yet generally, they grant rights to individuals around the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal data by businesses.

However, these laws make exceptions for certain types of data and certain types of collectors. In short, these laws aren’t absolute.

Can you remove yourself from data broker websites?

Some data brokers let you remove your information from their websites. There are also extensive guides available online that list the method by which you can opt-out of some of the biggest data brokering firms. For example, a guide by Griffin Boyce, the systems administrator at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, provides detailed information on how to opt-out of a long list of data broker companies.

Yet the list of data brokers is long. Cleaning up your personal data online can quickly eat up your time, as it requires you to reach out to multiple data brokers and opt-out.

Rather than removing yourself one by one from the host of data broker sites out there, you have a solid option: our Personal Data Cleanup.

Personal Data Cleanup scans data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites. And if you want to save time on manually removing that info, you have options. Our McAfee+ Advanced and Ultimate plans come with full-service Personal Data Cleanup, which sends requests to remove your data automatically.

If the thought of your personal info getting bought and sold in such a public way bothers you, our Personal Data Cleanup can put you back in charge of it.

[i] https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/privacy/state-privacy-legislation-tracker/

 

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