Spring cleaning? Clear out your inbox clutter and get control of your data

Rightly, independent data champions and consumer data action service, today announces it has expanded its Rightly Protect service. Now available on all MS domains that include: @hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com, @passport.com and @outlook.com as well as Gmail – which together account for over a third of email client market share – Rightly Protect is a free service helping consumers to spring clean their inbox by identifying companies that have their data and then enabling the consumer to send a data deletion request to some or all with a single click. Deleting data from companies that no longer need it aims to reduce the increasing number of UK consumers being targeted and falling victim to hacks, scams, unwanted marketing and spam each year.

Collaboration between Rightly and consumer rights organisations across the UK has revealed a growing trend for scams as a result of data breaches. “We have seen an unprecedented number of scams reported in the last 12 months. We are always looking to empower consumers with the right advice and to help them avoid falling victim to bad actors. A service such as Rightly Protect gives consumers control of their data and reduces the risk of scams,” commented Andrew Bartlett, CEO Advice Direct Scotland.

The Rightly Protect service allows consumers to take back control of their data from companies and reduce the size of their digital footprint, by intelligently analysing email inboxes and allowing direct requests for data deletion with the click of a button. This umbrella service now offers:

An intelligent scanning system which detects which companies in the user’s inbox holds personal data, subsequently providing a list of organisations, personal to each consumer, with the option to send a data deletion request to each organisation
A curated list of data broker companies that users can submit to and which will work on the user’s behalf to require other data brokers not to process their data.
James Walker, CEO at Rightly comments, “Following the launch of Rightly Protect at the start of February, the service has seen almost 50,000 deletion requests with users detecting and requesting data deletion spanning anything from 40 to 2,500+ unwanted companies that hold their personal data. That’s at least forty companies you don’t trust that may be selling your data and putting you at risk.”

“We talk a great deal about spring cleaning and how important it is for your mental and physical wellbeing, and that should stretch to everything from your home to your finances to your personal data. Businesses are required to tell you when they receive your data from another company, but no one does. The impact is that you don’t know who has your data, nor do you know who to ask about what data they have on you, nor how to delete it. But all is not lost. You can take back control,” Walker concludes.

How consumers can give their digital footprint a spring clean and protect themselves from risk:

1. Use online data protection services: Use services that help take back control of your data, such as Rightly Protect, which can make multiple data deletion requests to companies.(visit right.ly for more information)
2. Use multiple email addresses: Create a second email account that you use when shopping online and registering for online services.
2. Avoid the ‘third parties’ box: Make sure you avoid ticking the box about sharing your data when signing up to a website.
4. Misspell your name on suspicious sites: This makes it harder for scammers to steal your identity and future scam emails that you receive are highlighted by the wrong spelling.
5. Regularly check if you’ve been hacked: Make a habit of checking if any of your information has been breached, for example on websites such as haveibeenpwned.com.

If you’ve been scammed: Note all the details of the scam, report to the police and services such as Citizen’s Advice, Action Fraud, and Scamwatch Scotland and contact your bank.