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Remove your name, address and more off this site now!
Data is big business in today’s online ecosystem. It’s the reason behind Facebook’s unparalleled success, and why platforms like Google and Amazon are so eager to learn about you and your interests.
Each piece of data a platform obtains about you provides advertisers and marketers more tools to sell their products with. Microtargeting and intrusive ad tracking are simply side effects surrounding this massive exchange of data. Tap or click here to see how to stop platforms like Facebook from tracking you across the web.
But most, if not all, data collection services don’t seem to have your best interests in mind. In fact, many explicitly mine data from across the web to sell to other firms. And now, one of these platforms is attracting attention for its slick web design and massive database of contact information. Here’s how you can remove your data from it.
This data broker is more than it appears to be
If you aren’t familiar with data brokers, you should be — because they’re definitely familiar with you. These platforms exist to aggregate data on individuals for the purpose of research, investigation and marketing. And once they’ve collected a substantial number of profiles, they’ll often sell the data to advertisers and other brokers for top dollar prices.
At this point, you might be asking yourself “How did I even get on a data broker platform?” Well, don’t worry, you didn’t sign up for it, and you probably weren’t hacked either. These platforms typically purchase or scrape data from social media profiles on platforms like Facebook, which we already know contain troves of information about you.
Want to see everything Facebook knows about you? Tap or click here to find out.
But one platform, in particular, has attracted a good deal of attention due to its slick design and roundabout way of describing its service.
Apollo.io presents itself as a data-driven firm that helps businesses find new prospects to contact for marketing purposes. That’s all well and good, but when you see the mention of more than 200 million “prospects” baked right into the platform, that means it’s aggregated data from millions of profiles so users of the service can contact the people behind them.
In other words, it’s a dream come true for call centers, ad trackers and anyone hungry for millions of profile’s worth of data.
What’s more, you may be surprised to see yourself on the platform if you bother to try the service out. While Apollo.io doesn’t explicitly say where it’s obtained its data from, it does mention it’s collected troves of information from LinkedIn, the social media platform for business professionals and job-seekers.
Of course, if you want to preserve your privacy, there is a way to remove yourself from Apollo.io. You just have to contact them and ask for your data to be removed.
I don’t want more advertisers calling or emailing me! How do I get off Apollo.io?
Apollo’s website lists two separate contact forms to remove you or your company from its platform. But don’t be fooled — the platform doesn’t make this process easy. One of the email addresses it has listed doesn’t work and then to even get to the form, you have to email another address.
But don’t worry, we did the work for you. Just use this link here and enter your information..
Of course, you may want to check if you’re actually included in the company’s database first before firing off an email. While we wouldn’t recommend signing up for the trial with your real email address (why give them more data?), we’d advise creating a burner email address for just this occasion. Tap or click here for a free way to create burner email addresses.
But keep in mind: Apollo isn’t the only data broker on the web, and removing yourself from all of them can be a time consuming and frustrating process. Don’t worry, we have a guide that will show you how to contact these platforms and remove your data so you can take back control of your privacy.
Tap or click here to see how to put a stop to data brokers once and for all.
Tags: ad tracking, Amazon, Apollo.io, data, data brokers, email addresses, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, privacy, research, social media
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