There are plenty of people out there who have issues with public record sites like Radaris. The problem is that unlike a lot of other sites, the Radaris opt out process isn’t that straightforward.
As a matter of fact, thousands of people look up how to opt out of Radaris in each month.
We get many questions about this site as well, so we thought it would be helpful to lay out all of your options regarding how to remove yourself from Radaris.
What is Radaris?
In their own words, “Radaris is a comprehensive public records search engine for information about people, properties, businesses and professionals”. So what exactly does that mean? Radaris is an information broker or people-search site. Radaris.com finds, collects and centralizes data about people and then creates an in-depth profile of the subject.
This profile is then fully available to anyone who requests and purchases it. Hence, the growing interest in how to remove yourself from Radaris.
Radaris claims, “we are the industry’s provider of the most comprehensive profiles sourcing data from the nation’s largest providers and dynamically integrating these profiles with social mentions, factual references and billions of public records in real time. Your profiles are continuously changing and expanding as public digital data is captured.”
Radaris uses a number of resources for gathering this information, but before you can opt out of Radaris, you need to understand how the service works. There are three main approaches used by people-finder companies:
- Purchasing information from commercial or marketing indexes, collecting it into a database, and packaging it into a product that can be sold.
- Crawling the Internet for free content indexed by search engines and creating a searchable database based on this information.
- Combining Internet searches with “Deep Web” searches of commercial and government databases, then selling access instead of creating a database.
In addition to selling these in-depth profiles of people and businesses, Radaris also offers paid monitoring services so that you receive alerts as new information is added to your profile over time. However, this is a reactive strategy that will not truly remove yourself from Radaris.
Is Radaris attacking your privacy?
For people who are concerned about online privacy, Radaris, (and sites like it) poses serious threats to maintaining just that. Radaris finds virtually any records accessible online, or through various databases to provide as much information about a person, business or property as possible.
Unfortunately, because these are all technically accessible by law, Radaris won’t face any negative consequences for sharing this kind of information. Public access to this information in small quantities may not seem like a threat, but when these pieces are bundled together as profiles, this can feel invasive. This is why researching the Radaris opt out process is so important.
Understanding Public Records When Learning How To Remove Yourself From Radaris
According to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other Federal open records laws, access to government documents and public records is a must. This obviously has clear benefits, but also leads to the need for understanding the Radaris opt out process (and for other sites like it).
State “sunshine” laws let the public gain access to government documents and scrutinize the behavior of public officials.
When it comes to identifying where the information in on a profile comes from and how to remove yourself from Radaris, consider the following sources:
Data Sources
- District courts
- Local government
- County registries
- Police reports
- Criminal records web sites
- Licenses registries
- Deeds registries
- Local and state phone directories
- USPTO
- White Pages
Information you’ll find from records in Radaris:
According to the site, Radaris lets you find the following information all in one place:
- Phone numbers
- Address history
- Patent filings
- Property records
- Professional histories
- Social media account profiles
- Profiles photos and related images
While the site emphasizes the ease of finding all of this information in one place, it begs the question – why does this information need to be accessible to anyone? There’s likely a reason why so many people want to learn how to remove themselves from Radaris. While professional background checks seem like a natural fit for this sort of site, Radaris claims that these profiles and reports are ideal for the following:
- Conduct basic background checks on people you see every day, but need to know better
- Find an old classmate or long lost friend
- Learn your online date’s personal history
- Monitor your own web presence
- And much more…
The amount of control you have over your own privacy depends on the approach used by information brokers like Radaris. Radaris uses a combination of methods for their data collection which results in very thorough profiles. The company may even goes so far as to send representatives to courthouses and other government offices to gather information not yet available online.
Before completing a Radaris opt out, you need to know the following (according to them):
Unfortunately, Radaris doesn’t offer the easiest of solutions when it comes to getting your own information removed from the site. While they do technically offer an opt out function, Radaris makes you jump through hoops to make it work.
If you explore the option of removing your name and information from Radaris, the site makes a point to hammer home the following:
1. The information that Radaris shares is publicly available. Radaris emphasizes that all of the information they post is publicly accessible, and go on to list where it comes from. This is important to note, because even when you request to opt out of listings from Radaris, the information itself is still available to anyone who decides to access those sources listed.
2. Radaris is not a monopoly. The second page of “Control Your Information” lists some of the top players when it comes to data providers. The point here is not just to acknowledge the competition, but to make the user aware of other data providers that are likely sharing the exact same information and must be contacted directly as well in order to make this personal information less visible.
3. Tons of Data Brokers and Websites are also sharing this information. The data providers listed above aren’t the only sources that reveal your personal information. In fact, there are a number of brokers and sites that aggregate personal information about individuals and businesses alike. And the same thought process as listed above. If you want to scrub the internet of this information, then you have to start by going through all sites listed below to make individual requests for removal. The Radaris remove yourself plan goes further than their own site.
Only after making note of the major databases that also aggregate your information, does Radaris take you through the steps necessary to request an opt out through their website.
Additional Recommendations From Radaris On Their Opt-Out Process
In addition to the requests made for removal by Radaris, they suggest that you also need to opt out of a number of other databases that they pull from. You can find this list of opt out sources in its entirety here.
If you worry about your privacy and would like to monitor, edit or remove your publicly available personal information here is a guide below on how to do this.
To actually have Radaris remove yourself from their records:
Getting your records removed from sites like Radaris isn’t always straightforward. That said, you can certainly opt out from Radaris if you follow the right procedures.
Follow all directives to connect to Radaris and modify the information that is (or is not) shared on their site.
Currently you can do this by following these steps:
- Scroll to the bottom of the home page and select “Control Your Info”
- Click “Continue” through the following 3 pages
- Type your name into the bar on the last page and see what records come up. If you are a statutory-protected individual like a law enforcement officer, judge or district attorney, proceed to Step 7:
- From there, either “no records” will come up or you will see a number of results that share variations of your name. From here, choose the profile that pertains to you. Click “Background check & Contact Info”. Once you click that tab, choose “Control Info”.
- From here Radaris will require you to share information that confirms that you are who you say you are. While you should be honest with supporting documentation, feel free to use an email address or phone number that differs from your personal email address and phone number. And if you share identification documents, blur out id’s and as much info as possible while still proving that you are who you say you are.
- From there follow directives to remove your information from the site.
- If you are a statutory-protected individual like a law enforcement officer, judge or district attorney, you’ll have a different set of rules to follow, and make sure that you click the link on the 4th page.
Once you have followed all of these steps and removed yourself from Radaris you should look into playing a little defense. Sign up for our free tool to take control of your online reputation and protect your information.
The post How To Remove Yourself And Opt Out From Radaris appeared first on BrandYourself Blog | ORM And Personal Branding.
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