Whitepages.com Defends Removal-Request Process Against Police Group Criticism
After being accused of ignoring removal requests by the Public Safety Assistance Foundation (PSAF) last week (WID July 27 p10), Whitepages.com CEO Alex Algard told us the personal information search engine is “very diligent in response to user request for removal.” Since 2009, he said, the site has had a removal request process. “We've been looked at as the leader in providing tools … that let people take control of their information.” PSAF helps law enforcement and public officials remove themselves and their families from public databases.
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Removal requests are made both by individuals, which can be submitted via the website and result in automatic removal, and by organizations, who often submit bulk request on behalf of a group of individuals, Algard said. Because the bulk requests, which are “much rarer” than the individual requests, require manual editing, they can take as long as 24 hours to process, he said. A Whitepages spokeswoman noted that the PSAF website does not link to data brokers’ “frequently asked questions” pages, which often explain how to submit a removal request. “That would be helpful” to PSAF’s members, she said, “and we would be happy to work with them.”
To ensure there is a paper trail, PSAF CEO Joshua McIntire said, the group submits bulk removal request through certified mail. The Whitepages spokeswoman said sending physical mail can add delays to the removal process, “but never more than a week.” “For time sensitive or urgent requests, we highly recommend email or overnight delivery, and those are typically handled within 24 hours,” she said.
Once a listing has been removed, Algard said, the only reason an individual’s information would reappear on the site is if that person moved recently, which would create a new public record. Because Whitepages and similar sites pull most of their information from public records, this would create a new listing. McIntire said that PSAF often gets complaints about identical information reappearing on sites like Whitepages, and he attributed the reposted information to the websites’ process for finding and uploading information. “They don’t have a checks and balances system,” he told us, saying sites like Whitepages often purchase public records and then upload the data straight to their sites.
Algard said that wasn’t the case, explaining that the data Whitepages obtains from public records goes through a “cleansing process” which involves manual and computer-based editing. “We spend a lot of time and effort cleansing it and making it more accurate,” he said. McIntire said that PSAF targets online broker giants like Whitepages because smaller websites often create their own databases using information from the larger, better-known websites. “By targeting the big guys,” he said, “it solves the problems with the smaller guys.” Algard said Whitepages does not let smaller companies use information from its database. “We are very careful about guarding our information from other companies,” he said.
While McIntire said PSAF has a number of removal requests ignored by Whitepages, Algard said that after checking with the site’s customer service department, he was unaware of any outstanding removal requests submitted by PSAF. He also said the site gets complaints about the removal request process “very rarely,” and he wasn’t aware of any official complaints made by PSAF.