81 Percent of U.S. Counties ‘Poorly’ Protect Homeowners’ Personal Information, According to InMyArea.com
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NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to research released today by InMyArea.com (https://inmyarea.com), 81 percent of U.S. counties receive a “poor” grade for failing to protect the privacy of, conservatively, 10s-of-millions of American homeowners.
The research, Local Governments Are Selling Personal Data – 81% of Counties Received a “Poor” Grade For Personal Privacy, investigated and rated every county in the U.S. by visiting more than 3,000 local government web sites.
Just as alarming, local governments are generating revenue from the sale of records that include personally identifiable information (PII), by disclosing homeowners’ legal names and addresses. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, counties are selling this personal data to third-parties. For example, Wayne County, Michigan has received more than $420,000. Also, the counties that do not protect homeowners’ private information make it available online, subsequently, putting citizens in harm’s way for identify theft and other criminal activity.
“Drawing attention to this issue is a first step in reclaiming our data and personal privacy,” said Michael Gleason, founder of InMyArea.com. “In today’s consumer data hungry world, we would expect our government to protect our data. However, our research has found that is not the case. It is time we protect our data from unauthorized uses and have ways to express concerns to locally elected officials.”
To that end and part of the research, InMyArea.com has created the first Homeowner Privacy Information Database where homeowners can search to verify if their personal information is made public by their county and, if so, contact information is available to petition appropriate local government officials.
Local Governments Are Selling Personal Data – 81% of Counties Received a “Poor” Grade for Personal Privacy is available at https://www.inmyarea.com/americas-best-worst-counties-homeowner-privacy.
ABOUT INMYAREA.COM
InMyArea.com (https://inmyarea.com) is a localized home services comparison shopping site – a one stop shop where you can compare prices and purchase high speed internet, cable, home security, and many other services.
CONTACT:
Steve Stratz
for InMyArea.com
206.300.9134
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