The world’s leading consumer data privacy platform, Privacy Bee, has launched a new servicethat can delete user data in bulk from thousands of databases across the Internet. Specifically, the service deletes consumer information from databases so that it cannot be hacked or sold. By limiting the number of places where consumers’ personal data is stored, individuals are less exposed to breaches . More than 4 billion personal records were leaked in the first half of 2019, well before companies and businesses around the world adopted remote work amid the COVID-19. Despite the large number of such breaches, the US may not move forward with a privacy bill anytime soon.
As Caitriona Fitzgerald, director of policy and chief technology officer, and Mary Stone Ross, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), noted, the U.S. is one of the few developed countries in the world without a Data Protection Agency, leaving consumers in the country with the highest levels of data breaches, financial fraud, and identity theft in the world. However, companies’ data privacy practices are often flawed and outdated. It’s worth noting that the average time it took companies to detect a breach in 2019 was 206 days, according to an IBM study.
One effective way to protect yourself online is to reduce the number of companies that store and sell your data. But doing so can be time-consuming and requires patience, as hundreds of data deletion requests must be submitted. Privacy Bee seems to have a solution to this problem, making this feature simple and accessible to the general public. The new service automatically submits data deletion requests on behalf of consumers, saving the time and hassle of monitoring the company to ensure compliance. The team at Privacy Bee has created a database of companies that comply with rapidly evolving privacy, as well as a semi-automated system for deleting user data, company by company. The service costs $9 per month and $86 per year, covering all requests , all follow-up actions, and ongoing coverage of new companies added to the database. Privacy Bee requests limited personal information for sharing. Specifically, it only requests the information that companies require to make these requests. It has limited authority to act on behalf of users, while confirming that it does not sell or share user data.
Privacy laws in the US are a big issue for consumers. The onus is now on individuals to force companies to comply and delete their personal information to prevent it from being breached, stolen, or sold. The manual process is demanding and it is a huge feat for one person to stand up to the tech giants on their own. To stay safe, consumers need to be proactive and use the tools available to them to reduce the chances of their data being stolen and to force companies to delete information.
