What do you want advice about?
Homes dot com shows your full name, address, photos of your home, how much you bought it for, how much you borrowed for your mortgage, the remaining amount on your mortgage, your interest rate (although often it’s inaccurate), and much more.
Does anyone know if there is a way for your home to be removed from their website or at the very least your name?
What have you considered or looked at already?
I’ve contacted support@homes dot com and privacysupport@homes dot com asking them to remove my info.
According to Reddit and another forum it is pretty hard to get them to comply. Homes dot com representatives often say that all the information is public record so they won’t remove it. I only found one person who emailed support asking to remove internal photos and support just took down their whole listing.
In brief, tell us about your privacy threat model?
I emailed support and privacy support. I also filled out a form to have the listing removed from Google search but would still feel better if it was taken down from the website altogether.
I probably won’t be much help here.
But my guess on what’s going on is that they’re publishing everything on the real estate registry, which is usually somewhat accessible to the public.
A local website that does something similar has just removed presonal information pertaining to the individuals entirely.
Here is the email I used and response I got.
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing to request the immediate removal of our personal information. We have been the victims of stalking in the past and this information may put our safety at risk.
Please remove all information associated with:
Name:
Address:
I understand this information comes from public records but, I am requesting you honor my privacy by removing or masking my personal details from your website.
My local recorder’s office cannot do anything about this matter as it would be against state law but, Homes(.)com is under no legal obligation to display this information.
Please confirm when this action has been completed. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Hi,
We have completed our evaluation of the personal information (PI) held by Homes(.)com per your request below. We have processed your request by deleting any PI that is not subject to an exception under applicable Law. As a result, we have marked this request as completed. It may take a few days for this to be reflective on our site.
Any further inquiries about the way we collect, use, and store personal information can be found on our privacy notice located on our home page.
All the best,
Homes Privacy Team
I will try and report back what they actually removed when I check my listing in a few days.
I would suggest researching if your local recorder’s office has any jurisdiction over this matter as that is usually who they suggest contacting when they deny your request.
I tend to believe companies are more likely to respect these types of requests if you give them a reason. I find stalking to be a very effective reason for removal. It sucks that just wanting to be private isn’t enough.
Hope this helps!
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