Keeping Our Home Addresses Offline: How To Graduate From Opt-Out Whack-A-Mole
Yael Grauer
ShmooCon XX (Final) · Day 2 · Bring It On
In an era where personal information is increasingly commodified and exposed, Yael Grauer's ShmooCon talk, "Keeping Our Home Addresses Offline: How To Graduate From Opt-Out Whack-A-Mole," delivers a stark warning about the futility of individual efforts to safeguard privacy and a compelling argument for systemic policy change. Grauer, a program manager for cybersecurity research on the policy team at Consumer Reports and a freelance investigative tech reporter, meticulously dissects the pervasive problem of **data brokers** and **people search sites** that aggregate and sell sensitive personal data, including home addresses, often with devastating consequences.
AI review
This talk delivers a brutally honest assessment of the current state of personal information privacy, moving beyond the futile "opt-out whack-a-mole" to advocate for systemic policy solutions. Grauer, clearly an expert from her extensive work and personal experience, provides valuable insights into the ineffectiveness of current paid data removal services and highlights critical loopholes in existing state privacy laws. While the core problem is not new, the depth of research, the practical testing of services, and the concrete policy recommendations, particularly regarding the CFPB and…