Alex Vranas @Alex@vran.as

Finally, if you want some extra help, there are a number of paid services that will reach out to brokers on your behalf.

The one I *lightly* recommend, and use myself, is DeleteMe, which has done an acceptable job for some of my friends who did nothing manually first, and found a handful of things that I missed.

Here's an affiliate link that gives you 20% off: https://joindeleteme.com/refer?coupon=RFR-186613-FAYDHF (full disclosure: they'll give me $50 if you subscribe using this link).

Once you've done all of this, and you've waited a month or so, a good follow up is to search your name + phone number, and name + address on every search engine (private browser session!) to find the remaining low-hanging fruit.

Find the opt-out form for anything you find, and follow up for every data broker you've opted out of to make sure they complied.

A quick note on CCPA requests: They only apply to California residents, but don't let that stop you. Most businesses will comply regardless. If they complain, just say that you live in California but don't have an address there. That is enough to get them moving forward.

There is also a tool called PrivacyBot that is able to mass-mail data brokers with CCPA opt-out requests. It's out of date and broken, but there is still a CSV file in their repo that you can import into a mail-merge program to send your own CCPA requests: https://github.com/privacybot-berkeley/privacybot/blob/master/app/services_list_06May2021.csv

It's messy, and you'll have to verify with a lot of different brokers after mailing them, but it seems quite effective.

Data Brokers are one of the biggest threats to your privacy. Until there are better privacy laws in the US (and I'm not holding my breath), the best you can do is find them and request an opt-out. @yaelwrites put together an excellent repo of the worst offenders. Working your way through this list reduces your attack surface significantly: https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List

One of my favorite things is that fascist "patriot" trolls love to have .us domain names so they can signal how much they love America, and that .us domain names don't allow for whois security and have the trolls' full names and addresses publicly accessible.

It's why we know who LibsOfTiktok is, and where she lives, lol.

Inviting Roko's Basilisk to torture my simulated connectome just to feel something.

I asked #ChatGPT to draw a picture of a cat and a dog in an HTML canvas, and uhh...

Just realized I can get a Concealed Pistol License in Washington State without even owning a gun.

I think I'm gonna do it just because it would be extremely funny to have the license despite never owning or even firing a handgun ever in my entire life.

I absolutely didn't have "Official #raspberrypi Mastodon account has a public meltdown" on my BINGO sheet.

Good thing there are a ton of SBC's out there to play with made by companies that have the good sense not to intentionally insult their own customer community.

My cat Luci whenever I take a bath. #CatsOfMastodon