How to get your data from 192.com

Davey Winder Read more February 21, 2011

192.com contains a truly incredible amount of personal information, more than 700 million records in fact.

Chances are that it knows the full name, address and age of everyone at your house, your telephone number and even how much your house is worth.

The basic directory enquiries service is free to anyone, so pop along to the site and search for yourself to get an idea of what they know about you.

The worrying or, depending upon your point of view, truly impressive information is available only to “premium” members who pay for credits to access the service.

This data includes the current and historical electoral registers, population census data, company director reports, and birth, death and marriage records.

How to reclaim your data

192.com claims it only collates data already present on other databases, so the best way to avoid being included is to opt out of those.

If your phone number is ex-directory, it won’t be shown; if you’ve opted out of the Electoral Register (you get the opportunity when you’re sent one of those “eligible to vote” forms before an election), that data won’t be displayed.

192.com also has options for “self-removal” from the Electoral Roll data it publishes by faxing 020 7909 2169 or writing to: The CO1 Requests Administrator, I-CD Publishing (UK) Limited, 8-10 Quayside Lodge, London, SW6 2UZ.

Frustratingly, the company that hands out your data over the net won’t let you remove it online.