website refusing to remove my personal details from the internet

[zigman]

Dear forum members,

 

I am looking for ways how to remove my personal information from the website/internet which keeps ignoring my request.

 

Approximately 1.5 years ago I was looking for a temporary job and created a profile with my personal information (name, contact number, age, skills, education etc.) on this website. The website's purpose was to help people like me to find some additional work (e.g. care assistant, help when moving home etc). It is similar to those freelance workers databases online however it doesn't need you to log in to the website in order to access the details of the freelance workers and it is free of charge.

 

My profile on that website did not bring any results and I wanted to delete my information from it.

 

I contacted the website administrators and they told me that they will delete all my information from the website. There is no option for me to log in to my profile and to amend/delete the information.

 

Accidentally one year later I googled my name and search results brought up that website again with all my personal information! I contacted the website again and asked them again to remove the info. I did not receive any response from them for about a month and I wrote to them again. They then said again that they will delete it and when I checked the website few days later the website was removed from the internet.

 

Today I checked the website again and this website is back online with all my personal details available to watch to anyone on the internet.

 

Can anyone please advise me if I there are any remedies against this website or is there any way how can I force the website to delete my details.

 

I know I was stupid registering my details with the website without first checking the website properly, but I was also desperate to find some additional work at that time...

 

Thank you in advance!

Edited January 5, 2013 by zigman

[san_d]

Perform a "whois" on that domain, for example:

whois evilsite.com

 

This might come with some useful information. There should be a registered contact. If so, email that contact.

 

Failing that you can contact the web hosting provider for that site and report them for privacy violation. Hosting providers definitely don't want any potential lawsuits and are very sensitive to this issue.

 

It won't help if the web hosting provider in in North Korea, China or Iran though.

[zigman]

Thank you for your suggestion san_d.

 

I found their details on whois and will write to them now. I wonder where do I stand legally in terms of making legal complains etc.?

[honeybee13]

Hello zigman. Can you tell us where the website is based please as san_d mentioned?

 

My best, HB

[zigman]

Hi,

 

the website is based in US (Arizona). I contacted their registrar and hosting provider's legal team and cc'd their technical support.

 

Hopefully they will fix the issue and this will not be just a temporary fix.

 

I will let you know on any progress.

 

Thank you

[Conniff]

There isn't a lot you can do except request the removal. There wouldn't appear to be any recourse that won't cost a lot of money.

 

Am moving your thread to the employment section.

[san_d]

 

Am moving your thread to the employment section.

I'm not the OP, but what has it got to do with employment? This is an online privacy issue.

[Conniff]

It's the nearest I can think about and is a website where you register hoping for employment.

It's certainly not suitable for the Welcome section which is where it was.

 

Approximately 1.5 years ago I was looking for a temporary job

 

If you can suggest somewhere more suitable, I will move it there.

[transient]

Are you sure the website is currently holding your details and what you are seeing is actually a cached version of it?

[monkeychicken]

the "error" is being committed in usa, so us laws will apply- maybe google/wiki research on us data protection laws ?