remove search results for outdated web page
If I type in the name of almost any registered voter in Ohio into duckduckgo.com up pops a website that is no longer active that lists the person's name and the person's entire date of birth. The web site is: https://ohioresidentdb.com/person/OH. It used information collected from the Ohio Secretary of State's office. I have tried removing it from Google's search results, and the requests are still pending. This site has an email associated with it, which I found by looking at archived versions of the website: usresidentdb@gmail.com.
Is there a way to remove this risky bit of personal information from popping up in the search results for any hacker to see? All a person needs is an exact birthdate and Social Security number with a name to do identity theft damage, after all. Can Firefox/Mozilla/DuckDuckGo somehow contact the webmaster to remove this search result? I'm no techie, and I cannot do this on my own. What a mess. Help!
- Priscilla
All Replies (8)
That isn't a FF issue but a Ohio secretary of State to deal with. Why don't you inform the Ohio Secretary of State if there is a problem.
Hi Priscilla, Google can take a long time to throw things away.
The site's webmaster can create an entry on the server which returns the status code
410 Removed Permanently
When Google rechecks the address and gets that, it should finally remove it from the index.
However, if the site operator isn't cooperative, then... other options may cost a lot of money to pursue.
With all due respect to WestEnd, DuckDuckGo shows almost every Ohio voter's personal information online, while Google does not, and you say it is not a Firefox issue? The site does not even exist anymore, yet DuckDuckGo is still showing a highly sensitive piece of information online to every Tom, Dick and Harry who searches. I just now went online to my health insurance to pay the premium. Guess how I got into my account. By filling in two pieces of info: my account number and my complete date of birth, which everyone else can now find online in one minute.
I did send an e-mail to the Ohio Secretary of State, by the way. They have not responded yet. I have also attempted to contact the site's webmaster and have contacted Google. Thank you, jscher2000, for your helpful reply.
Just checked the pending requests to Google for removal of these links on the Google search engine. The status has changed on all of them from pending to removed. Let's hope that DuckDuckGo will now or soon stop showing the links to this extinct site. Thank you!
Unfortunately, it's not an official State website, and since it's down, I don't know if the State can do anything about it. However, if the governor's information is in there, maybe that will motivate them to contact DuckDuckGo and ask them to de-index it.
DuckDuckGo only shows what is given and if the site doesn't update-FF or DuckDuckGo can only show out what it is given. I suspect that site is showing the info related to you- that is why you posted it here and doing so would interest other 3rd party reading this site to go and visit and find your info as well. Did you consider that mentioning it here invites those software or bots to find more about you? Doing it discreetly by reporting to the Ohio Secretary about that kinda information reporting would prevent prying eyes from going there. When I find that kinda info about myself I go to the site operator and tells them to remove it rather then exposing it more.
Modified by WestEnd
Oh, boy! Thank you. I will mention that about our governor's name in my e-mail to the secretary of state and invite them to fill in their own names, as well, to see how their own personal information is revealed. That may work.
I truly appreciate your help. Since everyone using DuckDuckGo and searching for my name now already knows that I'm 50 years old, I might as well date myself with outdated slang. Jscher2000, you are the bomb!
goldfinch7 said
you say it is not a Firefox issue? The site does not even exist anymore, yet DuckDuckGo is still showing a highly sensitive piece of information online to every Tom, Dick and Harry who searches.
Firefox is a web browser and not a search engine like google.com and duckduckgo.com is. Other web browsers should get the same results.