Blockshopper PII Removal Tips Needed

LittleScoobyMaster

LittleScoobyMaster

Getting the hang of it
Jul 24, 2015
229
24
Sometimes it helps cybersecurity practices by keeping your personal information off the web but Blockshopper.com doesn't seem to be very cybersecurity friendly as they do not remove home owners information from their website unless you are in law enforcement, under an order of protection, or consider yourself under some other threat. Curious what tips people have to offer to successfully remove your personal information from Blockshopper.com. All tips are helpful.

There are quite a few websites that document people's complaints against the site and how they do not honor Opt Out information requests:

www.complaintsboard.com

BlockShopper.com Reviews and Complaints - Page 3 | ComplaintsBoard

Browse page 3 for more real reviews and complaints about BlockShopper.com. Share your experience on ComplaintsBoard.
www.complaintsboard.com www.complaintsboard.com

Blockshopper.com Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews

I asked Blockshopper to remove my information as there is a certain level of anonymity needed. They flatly said no and didn't address me nicely at all. They were extremely ...
www.consumeraffairs.com www.consumeraffairs.com

www.bbb.org

BlockShopper | Complaints | Better Business Bureau® Profile

View customer complaints of BlockShopper, BBB helps resolve disputes with the services or products a business provides.
www.bbb.org www.bbb.org
 
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In fairness, it is posted under "General Talk" => "Cyber Security".

I read some of the links and complaints and I must admit, it is concerning...but it pales in comparison to the the breaches in ethics, lies in journalism and overreach of government and their legislative actions that we are experiencing recently so I placed it on my bottom shelf.

In the interim, I hope one or more of the unhappy complainants in turn posts sensitive info on the owners Timothy Landon, Brian Timpone and Edward Weinhaus...enough so that they get to experience firsthand the issues caused by their greed, selfishness and carelessness.
 
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This information is publicly available via your local government, there is nothing you can do.
 
TonyR said:
In the interim, I hope one or more of the unhappy complainants in turn posts sensitive info on the owners Timothy Landon, Brian Timpone and Edward Weinhaus...enough so that they get to experience firsthand the issues caused by their greed, selfishness and carelessness.
Click to expand...

The data dump for the Timpone family and many known relatives is here (scroll down a few pages):

www.complaintsboard.com

BlockShopper.com - Invasion of Privacy

This is a new complaint against Blockshopper.com. This website, which supposedly provides "content, " is actually scraping people's profiles, including PRIVATE, profiles. I write this as one of the people that they posted an article about. My issue and complaint is that the career info that wa...
www.complaintsboard.com www.complaintsboard.com


And in fact, a few users have had success with Blockshopper removals from contacting Blockshopper relatives.

Although most of the info that Blockshopper posts is public information, most websites have better ethics and typically remove PII for users who request it. Blockshopper is the main exception in my experience. According to complaints, they also do not always remove private information that they post on people. They were sued by a 2000+ attorney group back in 2009 but from what I can tell all Blockshopper got was what sounded like $110,000 in attorney fees and maybe some other settlement. Blockshopper was linking house information to attorneys at a law firm's profile pages with their job descriptions, etc. At the time Blockshopper made it sound like the issue was all about the right to link to a URL on a website, but the bigger problem really to me seems to be that Blockshopper is so sloppy with PII, which back then wasn't as big of deal as it is today with GDPR, etc. I hope that a new lawsuit against Blockshopper happens soon. California has a few new GDPR-like laws that will be interesting to see tested with Blockshopper because a few California residents have already requested PII takedowns due to the new California privacy laws and according to the complaints, Blockshopper is not removing the California resident's information yet.

Jones Day settles lawsuit against small Internet site, defendants say

A small Internet site says it has settled a lawsuit filed by the Jones Day law firm - a suit that ignited criticism from bloggers and free speech advocates across the country. Read the settlementJones Day wanted to stop Blockshopper.com,...
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com


Google has a new PII removal tool that looks promising though. I've been experimenting with it but of course it doesn't help if you go straight to Blockshopper or through a search engine other than Google such as DuckDuckGo, etc.
 
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Most counties and cities in the US have a publicly accessible GIS mapping system that you can easily get all that information from. I know our state and county, both have this. We can easily just click on a property on the map and it brings up a full report of all data on the property, what it is zoned for, how much you paid for it, how many times it has been sold, the square footage and some have the interior floor plans, also. This does make it nice for when you go to buy a property. You can tell if someone bought a property cheap a year and a half ago and then decided to triple the asking price in a years time of ownership. Chances are, that is where Blockshopper is getting their data from.
 
Smilingreen said:
Most counties and cities in the US have a publicly accessible GIS mapping system that you can easily get all that information from.
Click to expand...

That is where Blockshopper gets their info from as well, local counties. I've been using GIS maps for over 20 years and the main difference between them and Blockshopper from my experience is that the Blockshopper data shows up in Google searches whereas most GIS data doesn't seem to show up in Google, or at least, to a much less extent than Blockshopper data does. That's a problem because most people are going to type in a name of someone in Google versus attempting to find someone on a GIS site first because it's easier and people tend to gravitate to easy.

Google has a PII Opt Out which I am still testing. Waiting for results:


The form is a little cumbersome but if you stick to it you can at least successfully submit a removal request. Still waiting on my submissions to be fulfilled. :(
 
They knowingly violate California Consumer Privacy Act and its regulations (the "CCPA") by publishing personal info on their website even AFTER you request them to remove it !

They are located Chicago, Illinois so you can do a business entity search, find their agent of service and file a lawsuit against them.



You can also Contact the State Attorney General for your state with your information regarding BlockShopper refusing to follow you request to opt-out and remove your personal data from their website and databank.

File a Complaint

www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov

You can also file a Fraud Report to the Federal Trade Commission.

www.ftc.gov

Federal Trade Commission

The official website of the Federal Trade Commission, protecting America’s consumers for over 100 years.
www.ftc.gov www.ftc.gov

Headquarters
27 N Wacker Dr Pmb 428
Chicago, Illinois, 60606
Phone Number
(314) 485-4882
Website
www.blockshopper.com

Scarlett M. Chapman
aka Scarlett Simpson
aka scarlettsimpsoncoach
aka Scarlett Walker Simpson
scarlett@blockshopper.com
 
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