If you own a car, home or business, your name and address are on a public record anyone can review under Freedom of Information laws that protect the public's right to monitor taxpayer-funded entities. If you are in a police report as a suspect, victim or witness, chances are you have provided your address and date of birth on a public record as well. Likewise if you are registered to vote, or even if you have spoken at a public hearing before the local town board. You can minimize your exposure on public records, but it's impossible to remove it completely.
Instructions
Knowing what information is out there, and what information might be out there.
1. List your largest assets (home, property, business, vehicles). Make another list of any unusual events that have happened to you in recent years, such as being in a car accident or arrested, or pressing charges against someone.
2. Take the lists to the clerk's office at your town or city hall. The clerk or someone on the clerk's staff will be able to tell you which public records with your name, address and other information exist at the town hall and which ones, such as a car registration or voting registration, are at the county office building. You'll be told at the municipal and county level that your name cannot be removed from those records. But at least you'll know which information is available to services that search public records online, and you can ask those companies to remove your information.
3. Identify which police departments you have ever had contact with, and visit their records departments. A records clerk can tell you if accident or incident reports containing your name still exist. Police must maintain a blotter of current activities and cases, but when cases are closed they may have the option of disposing of those records within a matter of months or years. In some states, you can request closed court case records be expunged, though it may require a fee.
4. Focus on the private sector. According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, federal privacy law allows you to know who has accessed your public records (privacyrights.org/fs/fs11-pub.htm#federal). Call your local phone service provider and ask for an unpublished number. Contact various websites that sell and publish public records, including US Search, Intelius and Acxiom, 555-1212.com and Whitepages.com, and ask them to remove your information or to never include it. You may need to provide that request in writing, according to USA Today Cyberspeak Columnist Kim Komando (usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2006-10-05-database-info_x.htm ).
