Right now, an invasive website is gathering more personal information about you than you might realize, and it’s happening without your consent. Even worse, it could put you at a serious risk for identity theft, privacy violations and more. You may recall hearing that National Public Data — an employee background check service — suffered a major data breach in early 2024. As a result, their parent company, Jerico Pictures Inc., was named in at least a dozen lawsuits, eventually shutting down in December 2024. Now, under new ownership, National Public Data is back online, this time billing itself as a “free people search engine.” If you enter your name and hometown into the National Public Data website, the search may return your cellphone number, home addresses, age, the name of your spouse and/or relatives and the names of your closest neighbors. That’s not all — if you have a landline, maiden name, traffic tickets or a criminal record, it will be reported there for the world to see, and it's all done free of charge. To protect yourself, experts are encouraging you to remove your information through an opt-out form. Here’s how to have your information removed:
- 1. Find your personal profile on nationalpublicdata.com, and copy its unique URL. It will be something like: nationalpublicdata.com/people/john-smith/ny/new-york.
- 2. Paste the profile URL into the submission box, then click the “Request Removal” button.
- 3. To complete the process, enter your email and follow the final steps provided to confirm your request.
Please note that you won’t receive a response after submitting your email. Your information will be removed, and you can verify this by checking back later. Most importantly, if you think you’ve been contacted by a scammer, keep calm. Cybercriminals prey on confusion and ignorance. They try to scare people, hoping that victims will act on emotion. Don’t do that.
