Websites selling public domain information, refuse to remove

[fibonacci00782]

I had an incident with identity theft several months ago and have been working to scour all publicly-available information on myself from various search engines. One site in particular has been particularly indifferent to my requests, it seems they build enormous databases based on public domain information and sell access to it at a premium.

I'm curious if I have any legal standing to demand they remove my personal information.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

Check your state or country laws.

I really don't have time to check all 50 US States for you.

 

[antrc170]

Provided that the information is public information gathered from public sources, then you cannot demand they remove the information. Paperwork filed with the country courthouses on things like marriage, court cases, etc are public records. A company has the right to gather that information into a searchable database and provide the access for a fee. Unless the information about you is incorrect, and they are provided with proof of that, the company doesn't have to remove any public record information about you from their service.

 

[fibonacci00782]

Thank you antrc, thats abit disheartening. Would I have any ground to simply state their information is incorrect and its slander/libel without providing the correct information? With all these issues of identity theft rampant I'm surprised its legal for people to scour personal records just to sell it online. Don't you need some sort of valid intent?

Stevef - I am from NY. Sorry I neglected to mention that earlier.

 

[swalsh411]

It's public information. Their intent is to collect it and sell it for a fee.

 

[antrc170]

Thank you antrc, thats abit disheartening. Would I have any ground to simply state their information is incorrect and its slander/libel without providing the correct information? With all these issues of identity theft rampant I'm surprised its legal for people to scour personal records just to sell it online. Don't you need some sort of valid intent?

Stevef - I am from NY. Sorry I neglected to mention that earlier.

Unless the information is incorrect it's not going anywhere. If it is incorrect you need to provide the correct information with valid documentary evidence.

 

[FlyingRon]

Thank you antrc, thats abit disheartening. Would I have any ground to simply state their information is incorrect and its slander/libel without providing the correct information?

Just because it's incorrect doesn't make it slander or libel, nor in most cases is there any statutory obligation to issue corrections.

With all these issues of identity theft rampant I'm surprised its legal for people to scour personal records just to sell it online. Don't you need some sort of valid intent?

Public domain is public domain. Unless the terms of the site mandate some official intent the answer is no. Even if it did, that's between the creator of the data and the infringer, not the subject of the data.