Removal of personal info listed by sites findthebest, findthecompany, dun&bradstreet

[hypntyz]

I run a small business from my home, repairing cars and building engines. I have done this since 2001. The business is not incorporated and in reality probably has no legal standing at all. I am in a residential area so even if I wanted to go completely legit, I cannot even obtain a city business license. I am not registered with the state, to my knowledge. I do pay federal taxes on the profits from the business. I believe I registered my EIN in my personal name, but I might have included my business name as well, I don't recall. Other than that, I am not aware of my business name and address being assocated anywhere else on the internet or in any government database.

I have always tried to keep my address off of the internet, because it seems that customers and random creepy people will take too many liberties if they find this information, including showing up at your house at random times that you may not approve of, or shipping parts or engines to your location without your prior agreement. Keeping my address off the internet allows me to control all visits and shipments to my home, I am sure all of you can understand why I would want to do this.

Recently some company started a website which posts data on "companies" online. So now when overzealous potential customers of mine look on my website and don't see my physical address, they google it, and this new website "findthecompany" is the first to come up, and right there is my complete home address. This is causing problems for me with people showing up at my home unannounced, and people actually shipping things to me for repair that I have not agreed to take on yet.

"Findthecompany" and "findthebest" are sister sites which apparently use a database mirror from "dun & bradstreet" for their information. Findthecompany claims that they allow the companies they report about to edit their information, but in order to do so you must edit your file on D&B, then the changes will propagate to the other sites. They apparently refuse to consider removing a file themselves, as long as it exists on D&B, it will exist on their sites as well. I have also read complaints on the internet from other people to whom this has happened, talking about how difficult FTB and D&B are to deal with, and how even if they successfully edit or delete their D&B file, FTB still lists their information.

I have attempted to change my file on D&B, but they make the process excruciatingly difficult, probably the most complicated form I've ever seen, and I hit a wall when their submission form was asking for financial and company information that I had no clue about. So I was unable to change it.

The point of this post and my actual question is, is there a legal means by which I can force these sites to remove my information from their internet listings? I do not have time to sit on the phone on hold, trying to explain things to some random person at a company who has harvested and posted my personal information without consent. I want to know if I can hire an attorney to take care of this in writing.

 

[disagreeable]

Short answer, No.

 

[hypntyz]

Well, that was rather anticlimactic.

So basically I am free to post anyone's home address and phone number on an internet site and no one can ever force me to take it down, correct? Somehow, I feel like there is a double standard in place whereby large companies and websites can get by with it, but individuals cannot. For example, most internet forums will remove any personal contact information posted about members , apparently due to fear of legal actions. Social media sites also sometimes remove personal information posted about users unwillingly.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

To begin, your company is a "sole proprietorship" and is a legally recognized business. It means that you're personally operating your business and personally responsible for its debts as well. It has as much legal standing as a partnership or a formalized corporation - it is just a different type of entity that is personal in nature. It wouldn't be fair to require all people to incorporate a business in order to earn a living and the law recognizes that.

Regarding these information companies and information about your business - there is nothing you can do. What you do is a publicly available fact. Any of your customers could have posted this information including anyone who knows that you run this business out of your home. There is no invasion of privacy since there can be no expectation of privacy whatsoever. The fact that you've been able to keep this information off the Internet is a testament to your hard work.

With regard to these information gathering companies, many of them purchase this information legally. You may have filled out a an invoice that included the name of your business and the address. It happens and it's almost impossible to avoid. But it doesn't matter since this information is publicly available.

Social media sites are completely different situations and their terms of use and acceptable use policies govern how they conduct their websites. Sometimes they will remove this information because not doing so will threaten the feeling of safety on the forum or website and people will be reluctant to post. This is why you'll see social media sites and forums more apt to removing the personally identifiable information you wish to be removed but probably have no legal remedy to do so with regard to the site you wish to remove the information.

 

[hypntyz]

To begin, your company is a "sole proprietorship" and is a legally recognized business. It means that you're personally operating your business and personally responsible for its debts as well. It has as much legal standing as a partnership or a formalized corporation - it is just a different type of entity that is personal in nature. It wouldn't be fair to require all people to incorporate a business in order to earn a living and the law recognizes that.

Regarding these information companies and information about your business - there is nothing you can do. What you do is a publicly available fact. Any of your customers could have posted this information including anyone who knows that you run this business out of your home. There is no invasion of privacy since there can be no expectation of privacy whatsoever. The fact that you've been able to keep this information off the Internet is a testament to your hard work.

With regard to these information gathering companies, many of them purchase this information legally. You may have filled out a an invoice that included the name of your business and the address. It happens and it's almost impossible to avoid. But it doesn't matter since this information is publicly available.

Social media sites are completely different situations and their terms of use and acceptable use policies govern how they conduct their websites. Sometimes they will remove this information because not doing so will threaten the feeling of safety on the forum or website and people will be reluctant to post. This is why you'll see social media sites and forums more apt to removing the personally identifiable information you wish to be removed but probably have no legal remedy to do so with regard to the site you wish to remove the information.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.