How did mylife.com get my info?

[F150HD]

after I replied to the first generic email we've all received, I got a response stating they'll remove mine in 7-10 days.

[keepingitsimple]

I tried this yesterday and just got a canned response that my page is complied from public record and that they won't remove it, but if I pay them for a premium membership, I may be able to edit/remove some data points. I told them what they could do with their paid membership....

I've heard similar reports. Not sure why mine worked. What I got was, in part "The referenced profile has been removed as requested." I have no idea what causes it to work sometimes and not others. Maybe try again?

I had basically the same experience as killjoy2012. First an automated reply stating:

“Thank you for contacting MyLife™ Customer Care. This note is to inform you that we have received your inquiry and will begin processing your request.

Please note that we respond to e-mail messages in the order received. Your Removal Request should be processed and completed within 7-10 business days.”

and then shortly thereafter another message saying

“Thank you for contacting MyLife™ to request removal of your Public Background Report & Reputation Score.

Unfortunately the information on your Public Background page cannot be removed as it is gathered from public records, government, and other public sources for the purpose of helping people learn more about others for business, dating and other reasons.”

Travel Geek, I read the article Clark Howard wrote about getting one's info deleted from MyLife and recalled he said if you were talking with them on the phone, to be persistent. So I decided to be persistent with the email method to see if it would work. It did. Here's what I did:

1. I emailed RemovalRequests@mylife.com
2. I requested my information be removed and included a link to the page about me.
3. I then received the first automated acknowledgment email saying it would take 7-10 days (like you received)
4. I responded to this automated email by simply copying and pasting my original request and link to my info page.
5. I then received the second automated email saying unfortunately they couldn't remove my page (like you received)
6. I responded to the second automated email by again copying and pasting my original request and link to my info page.
7. After step 6 above, I received a third automated response that said (among other things) "The referenced profile has been removed as requested. Please allow the required 24 hours for the profile to be completely removed."

I started this process this past Saturday night. This evening (Monday) I checked MyLife and am no longer listed. I also clicked the link I had sent in my request and it now says the page I am searching for no longer exists. So, persistently making the same request seems to have worked. If you want to see if it will work for you, I suggest simply responding to the last email they sent you and making the same request and including the link to your info.

Best of luck!
Keeping It Simple

Keeping it Simple:
My public profile got deleted in 4 days after one request. Why did you keep emailing them after they acknowledged your first request and said it would be removed in 7-10 days? Were you trying to speed up the removal process?

Sending them three emails was a bit of an experiment. I had read that someone submitted a request and received a response stating their profile would be deleted and then shortly thereafter received an additional email saying it was unfortunately not possible. So, after reading Clark Howard's guide to getting deleted from mylife and his statement that you would have to be persistent with insisting you get deleted if you called mylife on the phone, I presumed the process of emailing the request might have obstacles as well. My working theory was that I would need to be persistent.

I only generated one email to start the process, the other two were replies I sent in response to emails they sent me. It might be that I only needed to send the first email request and then wait to reply to their second email that said it was unfortunately not possible to delete my profile. It sounds as if you did not receive an email saying they unfortunately could not delete your profile, which is a response that I and apparently others received.

[keepingitsimple]

Hmmm. I was just going to send an email to have my info removed. Then it occurred to paranoid me that this may be a way to harvest email accounts.
Did you all use a fake or alternate email account?

Yes, I used an alternate email account reserved for things of this nature.

[keepingitsimple]

Travel Geek, I read the article Clark Howard wrote about getting one's info deleted from MyLife and recalled he said if you were talking with them on the phone, to be persistent. So I decided to be persistent with the email method to see if it would work. It did. Here's what I did:

1. I emailed RemovalRequests@mylife.com
2. I requested my information be removed and included a link to the page about me.
3. I then received the first automated acknowledgment email saying it would take 7-10 days (like you received)
4. I responded to this automated email by simply copying and pasting my original request and link to my info page.
5. I then received the second automated email saying unfortunately they couldn't remove my page (like you received)
6. I responded to the second automated email by again copying and pasting my original request and link to my info page.
7. After step 6 above, I received a third automated response that said (among other things) "The referenced profile has been removed as requested. Please allow the required 24 hours for the profile to be completely removed."

I started this process this past Saturday night. This evening (Monday) I checked MyLife and am no longer listed. I also clicked the link I had sent in my request and it now says the page I am searching for no longer exists. So, persistently making the same request seems to have worked. If you want to see if it will work for you, I suggest simply responding to the last email they sent you and making the same request and including the link to your info.

Best of luck!
Keeping It Simple

Thank you, Keeping It Simple. After reading your post last night, I responded to their 2nd email declining the removal with a robotic “please remove...” repeat of my original message. And a few hours I received a message confirming that they will remove the profile, just as you described.

I’ll check tomorrow to see if they did as they said.

Perfect! Glad that it worked for you!

[dknightd]

It is all magic, They could be gathering information from here!

[keepingitsimple]

Funny - looked up someone else I know and it shows him as both a "Democrat" and a "Tea Party Supporter" -...

My profile says the same thing. I wouldn't be surprised if it's deliberate misinformation in the hopes that people will volunteer their correct information.

Yup - it seems there are a few comments that they use for lots of folks ("second amendment supporter" being another) to try to raise eyebrows and get you to pay-up for a full report.
I'm just blowing this off as Internet B.S. This is only ONE of the many sites that are doing this now - even if you succeed in getting them to shut you off on their site (although who knows for how long it would last - they may simply add you back in 30 days) - there are another 20 sites you need to do the same with. Doesn't seem worth the time as the information is obviously suspect to begin with.

I agree for the most part...but some days you just need to feel a small sense of victory.

[SmileyFace]

You are all wasting your time worrying about this - they have thousands of complaints against them with the BBB and have had a number of lawsuits against them throughout the years. There are reputable background check services and mylife.com is NOT one of them (e.g. no sane business/corporation uses their services for any legitimate purposes).
I wouldn't contact them to be removed - it will only provide them more information (and you will likely be re-added after a period of time).
Also - mylife is but one of many companies out there doing this - trying to remove your name/public-info from the Internet will only be a game of whack-a-mole.

From the English used I am not sure it even originates in the US.

Los Angeles.

[rothnroll]

Thanks, I had my information removed from this and about 5 other sites. Does anyone know how to get my information off of myheritage.com ?

[DarthEnol]

I looked myself up on mylife.com. Comical results.
*Wrong martial status.
*Wrong address.
*No info for religion, political affiliation, etc.
*Outside of my parents, no idea who the “family/associates” they listed are.

As a disinformation tool, it works. I’m leaving it as is; no request to remove it.

[BogleTurtle]

check this resource with a LONG list of other similar places and their contacts to request removal

https://inteltechniques.com/data/workbook.pdf

[Caduceus]

The problem will just repeat itself unless you control the information at the source. What I do since I operate a business is that I apply for a supplementary business card with a made-up name, Ryan Jigglepants, that can, theoretically, be used by any employee. I am still liable for all the credit on that card so the credit card companies don't care about the name on it.

All purchases go to this different name. The name on my shopping account at Amazon is Ryan Jigglepants, and that's also the name that it gets shipped to when the items reach me. I have a separate account for shopping, promotions, giving to third parties, also named Ryan Jigglepants and paid for with the card that is in the name of Ryan Jigglepants.

But what was a bummer was that after several years, Ryan Jigglepants started becoming identified as a potential relative or known associate in some of these stupid sites. What a bummer.

I am now thinking of switching to Molly Nunchucks.

[BogleTurtle]

The problem will just repeat itself unless you control the information at the source. What I do since I operate a business is that I apply for a supplementary business card with a made-up name, Ryan Jigglepants, that can, theoretically, be used by any employee. I am still liable for all the credit on that card so the credit card companies don't care about the name on it.

All purchases go to this different name. The name on my shopping account at Amazon is Ryan Jigglepants, and that's also the name that it gets shipped to when the items reach me. I have a separate account for shopping, promotions, giving to third parties, also named Ryan Jigglepants and paid for with the card that is in the name of Ryan Jigglepants.

But what was a bummer was that after several years, Ryan Jigglepants started becoming identified as a potential relative or known associate in some of these stupid sites. What a bummer.

I am now thinking of switching to Molly Nunchucks.

Many years ago I started using different aliases for all the store loyalty card programs with the idea that I would know which one was selling my data. I eventually lost interest and forgot who had what.

[Ice-9]

I must be doing something right. I just checked myself and they had so many things incorrect it was laughable.

Political views - wrong
Ethnicity - wrong - I'm German and they have me listed as Middle Eastern
Religion - hoo boy way off
Marriage status - wrong
People I associate with - wrong
Parental status - wrong
Income/net worth - way off
Vehicle - wrong

You beat me to it. Here's mine from mylife.com:

Birthday: [they got this right]
Political Party: [they got this right, though I consider myself rather centrist]
Ethnicity: [they got this right]
Religion: [this was correct when I was 7 yrs old, no longer affiliated with any religion]
Income: [they listed barely more than 50% of my current salary, maybe 15 yrs ago would be close]
Net Worth: $1 - $4,999 [what?!?! no idea what this is based on, I own a house and have retirement accounts]
Relationship: Single [married five years]
Kids: Info Pending... [this is interesting - we're actually at the waiting stage for an adoption referral]

Current Home Value: [about $100k lower than Zillow]
Home Purchase Price: [they had this right]

Automobile: [they got this right]

Recent and past addresses: [they got this right]

Email addresses: [they listed a bunch of domains at which I've never had an email address]

An anonymous poster added a personal review "I would be friend" - what the?!?!?!

Interesting website. I'd think Facebook would have better info on people though.

[ResearchMed]

The problem will just repeat itself unless you control the information at the source. What I do since I operate a business is that I apply for a supplementary business card with a made-up name, Ryan Jigglepants, that can, theoretically, be used by any employee. I am still liable for all the credit on that card so the credit card companies don't care about the name on it.

All purchases go to this different name. The name on my shopping account at Amazon is Ryan Jigglepants, and that's also the name that it gets shipped to when the items reach me. I have a separate account for shopping, promotions, giving to third parties, also named Ryan Jigglepants and paid for with the card that is in the name of Ryan Jigglepants.

But what was a bummer was that after several years, Ryan Jigglepants started becoming identified as a potential relative or known associate in some of these stupid sites. What a bummer.

I am now thinking of switching to Molly Nunchucks.

Many years ago I started using different aliases for all the store loyalty card programs with the idea that I would know which one was selling my data. I eventually lost interest and forgot who had what.

Whenever I need to give an email address (e.g., if ordering online or getting on an email info list), I use a version of (using Bogleheads as example):

MyInitial(s)-Bogleheads @ OurDomain . com
We have a private domain, with only one outbound e-address, but "Rumplestiltskin @ OurDomain . com" will arrive quite fine.

Thus, I know who has sold/shared our e-address, if, say, Morningstar sent us something addressed to that same "BH" incoming e-address.

Note: BH has not, to the best of our knowledge, shared any info.
But it can be - and has been - surprising which entities *do* share/sell/etc., e-addresses and who knows what other info...

In some cases, we can tell whose contact list has been hacked, as the non-Bcc "Cc" list shows a bunch of others, some of whom we might recognize, or with organizational domain names we recognize (meaning, shared contacts, etc.).
I *HATE* when others send "Cc" lists instead of Bcc lists, as then the complete list is in everyone else's contact list... Grrrrr.

RM

[F150HD]

The problem will just repeat itself unless you control the information at the source. What I do since I operate a business is that I apply for a supplementary business card with a made-up name, Ryan Jigglepants, that can, theoretically, be used by any employee. I am still liable for all the credit on that card so the credit card companies don't care about the name on it...

I'm guessing you've Googled that name before....and have looked at the results. (NSFW)

Is your post supposed to be a joke?

[ainokea]

For what it's worth, I wanted to pass along my experience in having "my" page removed:

1. I first contacted MyLife directly and received a negative response. They informed me that I had to pay for their premium service in order to remove information they presented under my name.

2. I filed a complaint via the CA Attorney General's Office. Received a negative response.

3. I contacted MyLife again over their unsat reply. MyLife never replied.

4. I filed complaints via the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Complaint service, and my state's Attorney General's Office. Received positive response within 13 days, and the MyLife page is now removed.

My profession is in statistical learning and big data analytics, so I know full well how sites like MyLife obtain and compile this information. I find it creepy, as you all do. However, sites like intellius and spokeo never angered me, and I never issued a complaint against them.

Why was MyLife different? Their approach is to combine publicly-available PII and purchased consumer data with misleading language such as "Ainokea may have criminal records," and "Ainokea may have sexual offenses," "Ainokea may have records indicating that they have been evicted from their home," "Ainokea may have lawsuits," etc. Plus, they permit and present anonymous, scored reviews under my name. These are intentionally misleading and slanderous statements that they make people pay to remove. MyLife is a digital reputation extortion racket and I will gladly join in any class action lawsuit against these jerks.