The National Public Data breach has been a nightmare, exposing names, addresses, birthdates, emails, phone numbers, and Social Security Numbers of countless individuals — including mine.

As a California resident, I have the legal right to demand that they delete my personal data to prevent further exploitation. I simply don’t trust them ever having my data. However, my experience with their opt-out process has been incredibly frustrating and disheartening.

I tried to take action. First, I checked whether my data was part of the breach via their lookup page (https://npdbreach.com/). Unfortunately, I was indeed affected.

Next, I followed the instructions on their Opt-Out page (https://nationalpublicdata.com/optout.html). The automated call system repeatedly informed me that no one was available to take my call. It allowed me to leave a voicemail, but I have little faith that this will result in any action — especially considering the sheer scale of this breach, involving billions of exposed records.

Curiously, they also direct privacy requests to their Sales email account ([email protected]). Why is this critical issue routed through their sales department? It doesn’t inspire confidence that my data deletion request will be handled properly or even taken seriously.

I’ve left a voicemail and sent an email, covering all possible bases. Yet, I remain skeptical. My concern is that this difficult, convoluted process further disrespects the privacy rights of many citizens. My guess is that this friction for customers to request data deletion is purposeful and will become a serious liability for National Public Data.

Has anyone else successfully navigated this data-deletion process with this company? And does anyone know if there is a California class action lawsuit related to this breach?

We need to protect ourselves and hold organizations accountable for securing our personal information.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Information Security Strategy authored by Matthew Rosenquist. Read the original post at: https://infosecstrategy.blogspot.com/2024/09/frustration-trying-to-opt-out-after.html