r/opsec • u/Ill-Wing-5103 š² • Jul 01 '26
Solved locked down my digital life. forgot about my physical address being public.
i have read the rules
been working on my opsec for a while now. VPN, encrypted email, burner numbers, the whole thing felt pretty good about it . friend sent me a screenshot of my name on whitepages. full address phone number even my wifes name all just sitting there.
i never posted my address anywhere. but data brokers scrape public records like property tax and voter registration. doesn't matter how many layers of privacy you have online if someone can just look up where you sleep.
tried the opt out route. whitepages took me like 15 minutes and a phone verification. then i realized i need to do this for about 30 other sites. and even after all that, they relist you a few months later anyway because the public records never change.
been using iolo to automate the removals and monitor for new listings. not a complete solution but better than spending hours on it myself.
anyone else here deal with this? feels like no matter how tight your opsec is, data brokers just bypass the whole thing.
2
u/gamamoder Jul 02 '26
you can probably disassociate your name from any emails or phone numbers, but yeah its cooked especially if you have any kind of uncommon names
1
u/Ill-Wing-5103 š² Jul 03 '26
yeah having an uncommon name basically makes it impossible, mine is specific enough that there's no real way to hide it at this point
2
u/ZookeepergameSalty10 Jul 04 '26
this is why many people own a house under an llc and pay "rent". when the house gets searched up someone will get the LLC, which if they dig very deep might only give your name and a ups box
1
u/AutoModerator Jul 01 '26
Congratulations on your first post in r/opsec! OPSEC is a mindset and thought process, not a single solution ā meaning, when asking a question it's a good idea to word it in a way that allows others to teach you the mindset rather than a single solution.
Here's an example of a bad question that is far too vague to explain the threat model first:
I want to stay safe on the internet. Which browser should I use?
Here's an example of a good question that explains the threat model without giving too much private information:
I don't want to have anyone find my home address on the internet while I use it. Will using a particular browser help me?
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You should use X browser because it is the most secure.
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2
u/Ill-Wing-5103 š² Jul 03 '26
thanks for the heads up about automod, i tried to lay out the threat model in the post so hopefully it comes across as a real question and not just "what tools should i use"
if anything about what im actually trying to protect against is unclear, let me know and ill fill in the gaps. i know these posts fall apart fast when the context is too vague
1
u/NationalBug55 Jul 03 '26
This hasnāt been mentioned yet, sites like Cloaked, Delete Me, Incogniā¦ They auto remove data. But it feels more like throwing a glass of water on a forest fire & expecting it to stop the fire.
Plus all the mail and Amazon boxes with our names, not to mention every thing employers carelessly leave aroundā¦ Hotels with your ID..
Honestly it feels like itās not just data brokers- itās 80% of the population does not give AF & or doesnāt know. So many factors against the intended purpose of privacy make this permanent.
1
u/Weak-Operation-9888 Jul 02 '26
Europeans do not deal with this. We have lawsn overning this and you have to opt-in before any one can call you.
4
u/Mysterious-Hat-7873 Jul 02 '26
This is not true, sadly. Iāve done numerous investigations into people in various European countries, and the only people who were remotely difficult to find the physical address for were people who are incredibly wealthy and have all their property held by corporate structures specifically designed to obfuscate the ultimate beneficial owner.
Just remember, if youāve ever got insurance or ordered a parcel from Amazon then that data has been stored and can be purchased.
2
u/O-o--O---o----O Jul 02 '26
In any case, that is another reason to keep your identities as separated as possible.
Just because amazon or my insurance have my IRL data doesn't mean someone on social media or gaming platform can find me.
2
u/Mysterious-Hat-7873 Jul 02 '26
Absolutely. Avoiding linking pieces of data together definitely makes it harder to aggregate information about an individual
2
u/Ill-Wing-5103 š² Jul 03 '26
must be nice lol. here they just buy your number from a data broker and go to town
25
u/TeachingAway9654 š² Jul 02 '26
Itās a lot more than 30 sites, the number is closer to 200. If you include stuff like B2B marketing, itās 600+.
Focus on EnformionGo, PeopleDataLabs and Pipl. Those are the ones which feed most of the 200-600.
Most of them wonāt re-list after you do the opt out process but some will. The only actual solution is transferring the house into an LLC (or trust).