Systems and methods for removing personal data
A service that allows user to request personal data be removed from multiple data brokers or people search providers and tracks the requests is provided. A user provides identifying data that can be used to verify their identify to the service. The identifying data may include information such as name, current and/or previous addresses, email address, telephone number, sex, birthdate, etc. With respect to data brokers, the service retrieves information retrieves requirements for each of a plurality of data brokers. Based on the identifying data and the requirements, the service sends an instruction to the data broker to delete the private data. As responses are received from the data brokers, the service updates a report where the user can view information about each data broker and whether or not each data broker has deleted the user's private data.
1 . A method for removing personal data from one or more people search providers, comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a request to remove personal data for a user;
collecting, by the computing device, a set of identifying data from the user in response to the request to remove the personal data;
for each people search provider of a plurality of people search providers, determining, by the computing device, a web-based submission form associated with the people search provider;
for each people search provider of a plurality of people search providers, determining, by the computing device, a minimum subset of the set of identifying data required by the web-based submission form;
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, querying, by the computing device, the API or web-based submission form associated with the people search provider using the minimum subset of the set of identifying data for the people search provider, wherein the querying the web-based submission form comprises:
retrieving form field data about the web-based submission form;
identifying a plurality of form fields in the web-based submission form based on the form field data; and
inserting at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data into one or more of the plurality of form fields according to the form field data;
from each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, receiving, by the computing device, an identifier of at least one individual in response to the query;
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, sending, by the computing device, an instruction to remove the personal data corresponding to the identified at least one individual to the web-based submission form of the people search provider, wherein the instruction sent to the people search provider includes the at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data;
receiving, by the computing device, a response to the instruction from the people search provider that received the instruction;
automatically determining, by the computing device using a machine learning model and the response, and without input from a human, that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the people search provider, wherein the machine learning model is trained using previously received responses from the people search provider, the previously received responses being labeled as indicating that personal data was removed or not removed; and
notifying, by the computing device and in response to determining that the response indicated that the personal data was removed, the user that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the people search provider.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, determining that the identified at least one individual corresponds to the user using the set of identifying data.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining that the identified at least one individual corresponds to the user using data from the set of identifying data that was not in the at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the instruction to remove the personal data corresponding to the at least one individual to the people search provider comprises sending the instruction using a web browser.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of identifying data comprises one of a name, age, address, email address, or phone number.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically determining that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the people search provider using the machine learning model; and
notifying the user that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the people search provider that received the instruction.
7 . A system for removing personal data from one or more people search providers, comprising:
at least one computing device comprising one or more hardware processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the system to:
receive a request to remove personal data for a user;
collect a set of identifying data from the user in response to the request to remove the personal data;
for each people search provider of a plurality of people search providers, determine a web-based submission form associated with the people search provider;
for each people search provider of a plurality of people search providers, determining, by the computing device, a minimum subset of the set of identifying data required by the web-based submission form;
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, query the API or web-based submission form associated with the people search provider using the minimum subset of the set of identifying data for the people search provider, wherein the querying the web-based submission form comprises:
retrieving form field data about the web-based submission form;
identifying a plurality of form fields in the web-based submission form based on the form field data; and
inserting at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data into one or more of the plurality of form fields according to the form field data;
from each people search provider, receive an identifier of at least one individual in response to the query;
for each people search provider, send an instruction to remove the personal data corresponding to the identified at least one individual to the web-based submission form of the people search provider, wherein the instruction sent to the people search provider includes the at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data;
receive a response to the instruction from the people search provider that received the instruction;
automatically determine using a machine learning model and the response, and without input from a human, that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the people search provider, wherein the machine learning model is trained using previously received responses from the people search provider, the previously received responses being labeled as indicating that personal data was removed or not removed; and
notify, in response to determining that the response indicated that the personal data was removed, the user that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the people search provider.
8 . The system of claim 7 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the system to:
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, determine that the identified at least one individual corresponds to the user using the set of identifying data.
9 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the system to:
determine that the identified at least one individual corresponds to the user using data from the set of identifying data that was not in the at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data.
10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein sending the instruction to remove the personal data corresponding to the at least one individual to the people search provider comprises sending the instruction using a web browser.
11 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the set of identifying data comprises one of a name, age, address, email address, or phone number.
12 . The system of claim 7 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the system to:
automatically determine that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the people search provider using the machine learning model; and
notify the user that that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the people search provider that received the instruction.
13 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by at least one computing device cause a system to:
receive a request to remove personal data for a user;
collect a set of identifying data from the user in response to the request to remove the personal data;
for each people search provider of a plurality of people search providers, determine a web-based submission form associated with the people search provider;
for each people search provider of a plurality of people search providers, determining, by the computing device, a minimum subset of the set of identifying data required by the web-based submission form;
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, query web-based submission form associated with the people search provider using the minimum subset of the set of identifying data for the people search provider, wherein the querying the web-based submission form comprises:
retrieving form field data about the web-based submission form;
identifying a plurality of form fields in the web-based submission form based on the form field data; and
inserting at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data into one or more of the plurality of form fields according to the form field data;
from each people search provider, receive an identifier of at least one individual in response to the query;
for each people search provider, send an instruction to remove the personal data corresponding to the identified at least one individual to the web-based submission form of the people search provider, wherein the instruction sent to the people search provider includes the at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data;
receive a response to the instruction from the people search provider that received the instruction;
automatically determine using a machine learning model and the response, and without input from a human, that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the people search provider, wherein the machine learning model is trained using previously received responses from the people search provider, the previously received responses being labeled as indicating that personal data was removed or not removed; and
notify, in response to determining that the response indicated that the personal data was removed, the user that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the people search provider.
14 . The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the system to:
for each people search provider of the plurality of people search providers, determine that the identified at least one individual corresponds to the user using the set of identifying data.
15 . The computer-readable medium of claim 14 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the system to: determine that the identified at least one individual corresponds to the user using data from the set of identifying data that was not in the at least some of the minimum subset of the set of identifying data.
16 . The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein sending the instruction to remove the personal data corresponding to the at least one individual to the people search provider comprises sending the instruction using a web browser.