How many old accounts do you have at (once popular) sites? How are credit card companies pre-approving you? DeleteMe knows your personal information is “as good as gold” on the Internet – and they’re looking to protect you (while making a buck off from it, too).
DeleteMe, launched today by Cambridge-based online privacy software company Abine, deletes things you don’t want online. It’s dubbing itself as “the first delete button for the internet.” You tell the service what you don’t want, and they move forward with the due diligence around removing that information for you (like reading the fine print, making repeated calls, and even sending snail-mail letters).
Although actual people are doing the work to clean up your digital life, DeleteMe is set up like a traditional online shopping experience: add services to a cart as you “shop” and checkout at the end. Services to choose from include deleting accounts completely, removing individual items from the Internet (e.g. search results, a blogger’s post about you, a video, your info in person-search directories, etc.), and controlling the use of your personal information (e.g. managing what info services like Comcast, AT&T, CVS, etc. share about you). Popular deletion requests include deleting MySpace profiles, Facebook profiles, and requests to be added to the Federal “do not call” registry. Want DeleteMe’s help with other services not listed? All you have to do is enter to receive an estimate, and if DeleteMe isn’t successful you’ll be fully refunded.
Are you like me and don’t know the countless accounts you even have active out there? Not a problem. Let DeleteMe scour popular sites to find your accounts for you for $50. This seems to be the most popular aspect of the service, with a bright-red “WAITING LIST DUE TO HIGH DEMAND” statement by the offering. (You can still enter your email and get word on when the service is available again.) You can even subscribe to a quarterly info check-up for $79 a year.
Online privacy is a hot topic (and opportunity) right now, and when filtering through the service I learned a few new things: like that my pharmacy is selling your health information. DeleteMe’s parent company, Abine, is certainly no stranger to online privacy. It has another suite of products that will protect your online privacy going forward called PrivacySuite, and has even put together a succinct section helping you learn your privacy rights. The company clearly knows how to navigate the legal ease, loop holes, and otherwise when it comes to your online privacy, stating:
“Many companies strategically make it confusing or difficult for their users to delete accounts or terminate their services. In fact, many Internet users think it’s nearly impossible, but it can be done – it just takes patience and the know-how to navigate the mazes that corporations have set up to deter you from getting rid of them. The experts here at DeleteMe have all the tools and information necessary to cleanup your online information – hassle free.”
Check out DeleteMe’s fun intro video that takes you down the Internet privacy highway (with another not-going-out-of-style-anytime-soon MySpace dig):
Would you pay DeleteMe $50 to scour the web and identify services using your personal information?
