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.
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.