Systems and methods for instructing data brokers to remove 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 data brokers 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;
selecting, by the computing device, one or more data brokers from a plurality of data brokers;
identifying, by the computing device, a web-based submission form specific to each of the selected one or more data brokers;
for each data broker of the selected one or more data brokers, determining, by the computing device, a minimum subset of the set of identifying data required by the identified web-based submission form;
sending, by the computing device, an instruction to remove the personal data to each of the selected one or more data brokers, wherein each instruction sent to a data broker includes the minimum subset of the set of identifying data determined for the data broker;
receiving, by the computing device, a response to the instruction from at least one data broker;
automatically classifying, by the computing device using a machine learning model and the response and without input from a human, whether the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the at least one data broker, wherein the machine learning model is trained using a set of training data, the set of training data comprising a plurality of responses previously received from some or all of the plurality of data brokers, wherein each of the plurality of responses is labeled as either indicating that personal data was removed or that personal data was not removed; and
notifying, by the computing device and in response to determining that the response indicates that the personal data was removed, the user that the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the at least one data broker.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically determining that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the at least one data broker using the machine learning model; and
notifying the user that that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the at least one data broker.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a threshold amount of time has passed since the instruction was sent to the at least one data broker; and
resending the instruction to the at least one data broker in response to determining that the threshold amount of time has passed.
4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
determining whether the at least one data broker does not maintain a suppression list; and
resending the instruction only if the at least one data broker does not maintain the suppression list.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting one or more data brokers from the plurality of data brokers by the computing device comprises:
determining a location associated with the user; and
selecting the one or more data brokers based on the determined location.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting one or more data brokers from the plurality of data brokers by the computing device comprises:
determining data brokers of the plurality of data brokers that have the personal data of the user using some or all of the set of identifying data and requirements associated with each data broker of the plurality of data brokers; and
selecting the one or more data brokers based on the data brokers of the plurality of data brokers determined to have the personal data.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of identifying data comprises one of a name, age, address, address, email address, or phone number.
8 . A system for removing personal data from one or more data brokers comprising:
at least one computing device comprising one or more hardware processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device 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;
select one or more data brokers from a plurality of data brokers;
identify a web-based submission form specific to each of the selected one or more data brokers;
for each data broker of the selected one or more data brokers, determine a minimum subset of the set of identifying data required by the identified web-based submission form;
send an instruction to remove the personal data to each of the selected one or more data brokers, wherein each instruction sent to a data broker includes the minimum subset of the set of identifying data determined for the data broker;
receive a response to the instruction from at least one data broker;
automatically classify, using a machine learning model and the response and without input from a human, whether the response indicates that the personal data was removed by the at least one data broker, wherein the machine learning model is trained using a set of training data, the set of training data comprising a plurality of responses previously received from some or all of the plurality of data brokers, wherein each of the plurality of responses is labeled as either indicating that personal data was removed or that personal data was 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 at least one data broker.
9 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device to:
automatically determine that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the at least one data broker using the machine learning model; and
notify the user that that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the at least one data broker.
10 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device to:
determine that a threshold amount of time has passed since the instruction was sent to the at least one data broker; and
resend the instruction to the at least one data broker in response to determining that the threshold amount of time has passed.
11 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device to:
determine whether the at least one data broker does not maintain a suppression list; and
resend the instruction only if the at least one data broker does not maintain the suppression list.
12 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions that when executed by at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device 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;
select one or more data brokers from a plurality of data brokers;
identify a web-based submission form specific to each of the selected one or more data brokers;
for each data broker of the selected one or more data brokers, determine a minimum subset of the set of identifying data required by the identified API or web-based submission form;
send an instruction to remove the personal data to each of the selected one or more data brokers, wherein each instruction sent to a data broker includes the minimum subset of the set of identifying data determined for the data broker;
receive a response to the instruction from at least one data broker;
automatically classify, 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 at least one data broker, wherein the machine learning model is trained using a set of training data, the set of training data comprising a plurality of responses previously received from some or all of the plurality of data brokers, wherein each of the plurality of responses is labeled as either indicating that personal data was removed or that personal data was 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 at least one data broker.
13 . The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device to:
automatically determine that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the at least one data broker using the machine learning model; and
notify the user that that the response indicates that the personal data was not removed by the at least one data broker.
14 . The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device to:
determine that a threshold amount of time has passed since the instruction was sent to the at least one data broker; and
resend the instruction to the at least one data broker in response to determining that the threshold amount of time has passed.