Discover has launched Online Privacy Protection, a free benefit for customers to help scrub their information from 10 popular websites that collect and sell user data.
As the company said in a news release Wednesday (April 20), the benefit is for Discover’s credit card and banking customers alike and is available only on its mobile app.
“Consumers today worry about their personal data ending up in the wrong hands. The process to get this information taken down from people-search websites can be time-consuming, confusing, and costly, and consumers are often left to fend for themselves,” said Shannon Kors, vice president of product and marketing at Discover. “Online Privacy Protection is a convenient and free benefit that helps give our customers peace of mind and more control of their personal information online.”
Discover said the tool regularly examines popular people-search websites and helps remove personal information of customers — names, addresses, ages and phone numbers. These sites compile, publish, and sell consumers’ information and make it accessible for anyone to purchase via public-facing websites.
Once customers sign up, Online Privacy Protection automatically scans these people-search sites roughly every 90 days: BeenVerified.com, Intellius.com, Yellowpages.com, Addresses.com, PeopleLooker.com, AnyWho.com, InstantPeopleFinder.com, PeopleSmart.com, USsearch.com and ZabaSearch.com.
Discover says its research shows that 83% of consumers are concerned about the misuse of their personal information, while 31% say they have little to no control over it. The same research showed 74% of adults were familiar with people-search websites, although 64% are not familiar with the technology that could help get their information off these sites.
Learn more: FTC Chair Wants to Step up Privacy Protection With New Rules
Last week, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan said it was time her agency re-examines rules governing the data companies can collect from consumers.
Speaking at an event held by the International Association of Privacy Protections, Khan said that the current notice and consent framework was “outdated and insufficient.
She also suggested the FTC and Congress should take steps to make sure people don’t have to give up their data to have access to online tools they need in their everyday lives.
“I believe we should approach data privacy and security protections by considering substantive limits rather than just procedural protections, which tend to create process requirements while sidestepping more fundamental questions about whether certain types of data collection and processing should be permitted in the first place,” Khan said.
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