Privacy & data-removal glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms behind data brokers, breaches and the dark web — and a link to the page where you can actually do something about each one.
CCPA / CPRA
California’s consumer privacy laws (the California Consumer Privacy Act, expanded by the California Privacy Rights Act). They give residents the right to access, delete and stop the sale of their personal data — the legal basis for many broker opt-outs.
Privacy rights by stateCredential stuffing
An attack that takes username-and-password pairs leaked in one breach and tries them automatically on other sites. It works because people reuse passwords — which is why a unique password per account stops a single leak from spreading.
Check your exposureDark web
A small, hidden layer of the internet that ordinary search engines don’t index and that you can only reach with anonymizing software like Tor. It has legitimate privacy uses, but it’s also where stolen passwords, IDs and financial data from breaches are bought and sold.
What is the dark web?Dark-web monitoring
A service that checks whether your email, passwords or other details appear in known breach databases and dark-web dumps, and alerts you so you can change exposed credentials. It’s an early warning system — it can’t remove leaked data.
Run a free dark-web checkData breach
An incident where a company’s data is stolen or exposed. Breached records — emails, passwords, payment details — are dumped and resold for years, which is the most common way personal data reaches the dark web.
Browse the breach directoryData broker
A company that collects personal information about people from public records, online activity and other sources, packages it into profiles, and sells or licenses it to marketers, businesses and individuals — usually without the person’s knowledge or consent.
What is a data broker?Data minimization
The privacy principle of collecting and keeping only the personal data you actually need, and no more. For an individual it means sharing less — the fewer places your data lives, the less there is to leak, sell or steal.
Deep web
Everything search engines don’t index — your email inbox, online banking, internal databases and other login-protected pages. Most of the deep web is ordinary and private; the dark web is only a tiny subset of it.
DELETE Act / DROP
California’s DELETE Act (SB 362) created DROP — the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform — where one request can delete a resident’s data from every registered data broker. Residents can submit requests, and brokers must begin honoring them in 2026.
California DELETE Act explainedDoxxing
Publishing someone’s private information — home address, phone, workplace, family — online to harass, intimidate or endanger them. Data brokers make doxxing easy because they already expose much of that information publicly.
Remove your home addressIdentity theft
Using someone’s stolen personal information to commit fraud — opening accounts, filing tax returns or making purchases in their name. It’s one of the most-reported complaint categories to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Opt-out
The process of asking a data broker to remove your information and stop selling it. Most brokers offer a free opt-out form; some require email confirmation or ID. Because brokers re-list people from fresh public records, opt-outs have to be repeated.
Generate an opt-out letterOSINT
Open-source intelligence: gathering information about a person from publicly available sources — social media, data brokers, public records, search results. The same techniques used by researchers can be used to profile or target individuals.
People-search site
The consumer-facing kind of data broker (Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, Radaris and similar) that lets anyone look up a person’s address, phone, age and relatives for a few dollars. Every major one is legally required to offer a free opt-out.
Opt out of people-search sitesPersonally identifiable information (PII)
Any data that can identify a specific person — name, address, phone number, email, Social Security number, date of birth — on its own or combined with other data. PII is what data brokers trade and what attackers exploit.
Right to be forgotten
The right to have your personal data erased on request. It’s strongest under the EU’s GDPR; in the U.S. there’s no single federal version, but a growing number of state privacy laws grant a similar right to delete.
Your rights by stateSkip tracing
The practice of locating a person by piecing together data-broker records, public records and online traces. Used legitimately by debt collectors and investigators — and abused by stalkers — it relies on the same exposed data you can opt out of.
Tor
Free software (The Onion Router) that routes your traffic through several relays to hide your identity and location. It’s legal to use and was built for privacy and free expression; it’s also the main way people reach dark-web sites.
How the dark web worksSee where your data is exposed
Check your email against known breach databases and dark-web dumps — free, no signup.
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