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I am a social worker that works with the mentally ill. I am very protective of my personal information such as address and family members. Every so often I check my name on a search engine, and when I did this on google the first thing to appear is my entire address, my name, and names of family members who have previously owned my home.I understand this is public record but was shocked to see it so openly advertised. I fear for my safety. I sent them a pleading and friendly email explaining my fears as my clients sometimes have violent, harrassing, and mentally unstable issues. They responded with a nonchalant snub that it is their right to post this. I agree they have the right to know, as all do. But I am sincerely upset that they feel that it is their right to put my safety and security at risk without a care.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I am finding myself in a very similar situation. I work in the public sector and for safety reasons, cannot / should not have aspects of my identity publicly disseminated.
A recent google search of my name revealed my entire address, along with purchase price of my home, and previous owner information. There is no consistency here. When I googled friends, family, neighbors - nothing came up. It's random and nauseating.
I immediately sent over an email explaining such and requesting removal of this information and just as quickly received a canned "we're allowed to do this legally, we get our information from the county and do not make changes at request" do this response.
I understand that it is public information, but this information needs to be regulated. It should be known who this information is given to; it's 2009, it should not be easily revealed on a google search.
Now off to the county clerk and a filing with the Better Business Bureau.
What are our options?
I agree. A stalker could take your info and show up on your door steps. Although the info is public there should be some regulations against posting it on the internet. I am talking to my lawyer.
I am completely traumatized by Blockshoppers Privacy violations.
The assessors office is, at least here in California, is NOT the only source Blockshopper generates their records from. Here in CA there also is the so called Registrar Recorder/County Clerk Office which hold on file the sales history of properties. So, even if you transfer it into "Living Trust" you name will still be on public record file as part of the "Sales History". The Way to go now is to find a lawyer who will take this on as a class action law suit. Therefore I am asking to get in touch with other victims, who are interested to join for a class action law suit. ADDITIONALLY I will file a complain to the Attorneys General and to the BBB and I will contact congress men.
WHo will join me?
F.
I will join in any class action suit. But, we need to be proactive. Contact their advertisers and agents. Let them know just who they are associating with (I would suggest writing contact information all at once as they make money every time somebody goes on their site - So far I've found Target, The Washington Post, Wal-Mart, AT&T, LifeLock). Laws need to protect us from these people. Write your elected officials, contact everybody you know and ask them to do the same, contact consumer groups, make YouTube videos, contact your local media, and anything else you can think of. Spread the word to warn people and make this company toxic to their advertisers.
I too am a therapist, and I HAVE ALREADY BEEN STALKED by a patient who got my personal info. from blockshopper. Please advise, anybody, on what I can do. Yes, let's get a lawyer and sue the hell out of these money-grubbing A-holes ! anybody reading this can contact me... I have proof that my safety and security has been compromised because of this company. They only care about profits, they don't give a [censored] about anytthing else. ! Kathy khnumber8@yahoo.com
If you are interested in joining a well organized effort against blockshopper, please contact me. I'm talking about:
1. Coordinated e-mail campaign: Individual e-mails isn't going to do it. We need numbers. If a company gets a random e-mail here and there it'll remain under the radar. But if they get a flood of them, and if it is from an organized group that says there is a deadline to remove ads or there will be a consumer boycott, then it will get their attention. Let's get organized.
2. Contact Google. Blockshopper not only has Google disseminating the problematic search listings, but Blockshopper also relies on Google ads for their revenue. Meanwhile Google has a code of conduct (http://investor.google.com/conduct.html) that is entirely inconsistent with their support of blockshopper. Let's call on Google to live up to their code of conduct. And again, we flood them in a coordinated effort.
3. Legal Action. Let's explore all avenues. Blockshopper's right to freedom of speech does not include endangering others. If you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater, you can't list people's information if they have a safety concern and want the info removed.
4. Information exchange. Let's see if there are other things we can do to protect ourselves in the meantime. Has anyone had success getting their county to stop giving the information out publicly (i.e. to Blockshopper)? What else can be done?
E-mail me if interested. OptOut4Safety@gmail.com
I would suggest starting a facebook site to incite others' attention and support. Also, for those living in CA, public records for property tax information are considered public but there seems to be a caveat. Personal information is not listed or available online by state and local agencies for obvious reasons: *Name private per CA AB2238 *. Private businesses should be similarly held accountable. It is one thing to disclose property tax information about a particular parcel of land but to post detailed information about the owner is reprehensible and only encourages identity theft and other similar crimes of fraud.
I encourage everyone to boycott anyone company who advertises on Blockshopper.com Someone should make a facebook group on it too. It violates are privacy. This is what they replied to me with when I requested to have my information removed.
BlockShopper publishes public records. Property ownership and sales information is listed publicly in multiple places on the internet and in other publications. We get our data from the county-- it is the public record. It's our goal to be accurate and consistent, so we don't simply edit the public record on any request.
ok so i am not the only one to have problems with this site. They not only publishd my house address with my full name and price information. but also where i did my jobs where i studied and where i lived perviously. and when i told them to remove my private info all they said was it cannot be removed as it made public legally. has there been any progress in fillin a lawsuit against this company? i defienetly want to join it...
My wife's ex's husband used the internet to find where I lived, and tried to kill me. Luckily the police arrive and he was found guilty. I moved to avoid him, but now if you google either of our names, BlockShopper shows our address on the first page of Google search results. Trying to figure out what I can do about this