CoreLogic is a US-based data-collecting behemoth. It covers mapping, weather, property, and people. Just one of its services – of particular value to insurers and rental companies – is the creation of consumer reports. These detail a "consumer’s character, general reputation, personal characteristics” and are handy for "background screening” and "tenant screening” among other things.
If you don’t like the idea of a Fortune 1000 company lining its pockets with your personal information, read on and we’ll tell you how to opt out of CoreLogic.
Why should I opt out of CoreLogic?
CoreLogic is a data broker. It collects data, repackages it, and sells it to other businesses. While much of the data collected by CoreLogic is prosaic – such as the amount of hail experienced in a particular area – it has the resources to provide insights into people’s lives that can have lasting effects.
For example, a property owner could refuse to rent you a property based on a report of you compiled by CoreLogic. Or a life insurance company could increase your premiums. Or a bank could turn down a loan application.
While most people accept that information they directly provide to a property company, bank, or insurer will have an effect on their application’s outcome, most take issue with information being surreptitiously gathered about them.
Data used by data brokers is typically collected from online sources. This can include social media sites, cookies, electoral rolls, census data, court reports, and other data brokers. If you don’t like the idea of this, you can start by requesting that CoreLogic erase your personal data.
The CoreLogic site says that consumers "may ask us for a copy of their personal data, to correct it, erase it or to transfer it.” They also have the right to "object to some processing including profiling.” In particular, consumers have "the right to object to direct marketing at any time.”
How to opt out of CoreLogic
Use the relevant emails below to request that your data be removed. Include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code.
CoreLogic USA Email: [email protected]
EU: CoreLogic Solutions and eTech Email: [email protected]
CoreLogic says that it aims to "acknowledge your enquiries within 72 hours and respond within one month, unless otherwise required by law.”
If you receive no response, you have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
How to remove yourself from other data broker databases
CoreLogic has more than 100 products and data solutions available to businesses worldwide. Any one of these might rely on several other third-party data brokers. For example, CoreLogic’s Credco – which provides information to lenders in support of their decision-making – uses data from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Trying to remove yourself from every data broker’s database is a serious – and potentially futile – undertaking. However, we have guides to manually removing yourself from some commonly used data brokers below.
As you’ll quickly discover, contacting data brokers and then checking that your data has been removed – and stays removed – is incredibly time-consuming. Data brokers don’t particularly want to delete their hoarded data, so can make you jump through hoops before they delete it.
The good news for those who want to try and wipe their online slate clean is that there are services which will do the hard work for you.
Best services for data removal
Let’s explore in more detail how the best data removal services in the business work to remove your information from the clutches of data brokers.
Incogni is our top pick for data removals. It handles the tedious work of contacting individual data brokers with data removal requests and then chases them up. Created by the people behind the user-friendly VPN, Surfshark, Incogni is a similarly easy-to-use service. You just need to sign up, tell it which personal data you’d like removed, and give it the authorization to contact data brokers on your behalf. After that, you need to do nothing more. An online dashboard provides information on the number of deletion requests issued, the number completed, and the number in progress. If you’re interested, you can see the specific companies that have been contacted. Incogni says that it has contacts for more than 180 data brokers. These include brokers trading in data related to marketing, recruitment, risk mitigation, people-search, financial information, and health information. Incogni chooses which companies to target first based on the likelihood of them having your data. Once Incogni has successfully had your data removed, it will periodically check that the company hasn’t re-added your information. Unfortunately, data removal is an ongoing battle – so it’s worth thinking about whether you’re willing to invest in it for the long term before starting the process. Annual Incogni plans cost $6.49 a month, or you can pay on a month-by-month basis for $12.99 per month. Subscriptions come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the service without losing out financially – though be aware that data brokers generally have 30 days or more to remove your data once contacted. Privacy Bee is a comprehensive data removal service that contacts up to 200 data brokers on your behalf and, if necessary, follows up removal requests. Privacy Bee is a US-based company that guarantees that your personal information is removed from hundreds of sites “within the first few months.” And, moreover, any re-addition of your data to these sites is “cleaned up quickly and continuously.” In practice, Privacy Bee says that it processes two to three data deletion and opt-out requests per user, per day. After a request is made, companies are given 60 days to respond. They are re-contacted after this period and gently reminded of the relevant data protection legislation. Privacy Bee subscriptions cost $197 a year, which might seem like a lot. However, users can add family members to their plan – with each member getting their own login and account. If you’re a family of four, Privacy Bee is actually rather good value. On signup, users must give Privacy Bee consent to contact data brokers on their behalf. They can also choose which companies they trust with their data via the online dashboard. Privacy Bee’s browser extension displays your current relationship with the companies you come across while online – and makes it easy to mark them as “Trusted” or “Negative.” Privacy Bee will contact untrusted companies with removal requests and then “clean up anything publicly exposed in search engines.” At the time of writing, Privacy Bee is only available to people in the US. DeleteMe is a subscription service that removes personal information from the largest online data brokers and checks back on them every two months. DeleteMe is probably the most well-known of the data removal companies, having been in the business for more than a decade. It has a database of 750+ data brokers and provides detailed reports on subscribers’ removal requests after seven days. These reports detail what data has been found and whether removal requests are ongoing or completed. Users can see how long it’s taken each company to remove their personal information. Data removed by DeleteMe includes your name, age, addresses (current and past), photos, email, phone number, relatives, occupation, marital status, and property value. DeleteMe says that it periodically checks that your data hasn’t been re-added to any company databases that have previously held it. DeleteMe has a few subscription options, with the cheapest priced at $129 a year. This covers removal requests for one person. A two-person subscription costs $229 a year or $349 for two years. DeleteMe is only available to those in the US. For additional fees, subscribers can create what DeleteMe calls a “masked phone” and a “masked card”. These are disposable numbers that you can use to make calls or make purchases without revealing your actual phone number or card details. DeleteMe also allows for the creation of a placeholder email address to use in lieu of a subscriber’s own personal email address. This feature is available via the DeleteMe dashboard. 1. Incogni
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2. Privacy Bee
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How to opt out of CoreLogic – FAQs