Updated at 4:00pm PT on 11/10/22: I received an email that Discover successfully removed my data records from these 10 websites. Scroll down to the bottom to see the update.
Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. A few months ago, I wrote New Discover Credit Card Benefit: Online Privacy Protection (Removes Personal Info from People-Search Websites). In that post, I talked about Discover’s Online Privacy Protection service and how it works. Fast forward to a few days ago, Discover sent me an email that they had found 10 more data records and automatically submitted opt-out requests on by behalf. After I received the email, I signed into the Discover app and clicked on the Online Privacy Protection button.
On this screen, I can se the 10 opt-out requests in progress and see which websites and what types of data Discover found about me.
There were 10 instances of my full name (including middle initial) and 80 instances of cities I have lived at or been associated with (most were correct, but there were some cities I did not recognize on the list).
There were 50 instances where it found relatives with the same last name and 10 instances where they found my current age.
Last but not least, there were 10 instances where it found my email address and phone number, but it did not show those on the screen.
~2.5 weeks later, I got an email from Discover that they successfully removed these 10 data records from my account. I signed into my Discover app and went to the scan results page. My next scan is scheduled for January 2023.
Here are the 10 people search websites and the records that they removed.
I hate that these websites exist in the first place, but I’m glad Discover offer’s this service for free and routinely checks for my data every 2-3 months. It’s also convenient that Discover automatically submits these opt-out requests on my behalf so there is really nothing I need to do after initially enrolling in the service. If you have any questions about this service or about the Discover It Credit Card, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
I signed up for the debit but actually did not funded it. Now, I’m regretting it coz I have to wait until they start accepting applications again.
What debit product are you referring to?
A bit of a coincidence I suppose but I had exactly 10 instances as well.
Oh ya, that is a coincidence. I wonder if there was like a data dump into these sites recently. I’ll see how the number changes next round. I hope your opt-outs go smoothly and quickly.