DocketBird?

[Anonymous]

I did a search and did not find anything here.  Has anyone ever heard of DocketBird?  I'm close to getting my discharge after filling for ch7.

I've been cleaning up what comes up when searching my name on Google.  Basically just name, address, phone number.  But about 5 pages deep I found this site called Docketbird.  Evidently they pull documents from federal cases and sell them for 4 bucks a pop.  I realize that a simple backround check will reveal the bankrupcty.  And anyone can pay any one of the many sites for that.  But I was surprised (or maybe not) to see it listed in a Google search for my name as opposed to only being revealed behind a paywall of some sort.  They do offer to remove the documents from their site.  They want $79 to do it.  Has anyone done this and do they actually follow through and remove them which would inturn get rid of the Google search result?  In theory their reasoning for wanting money to remove the documents makes sense sadly.  They lose money without the documents.  

[MyDataMyChoice]

https://www.docketbird.com/request_case_removal?case_id=cafc-2018-01662

[Anonymous]

Have you paid them to remove your information?

[MyDataMyChoice]

No

and that link is specific to the case in the link...

The case is PUBLIC Data.... via Pacer... but its not on google... this site makes money from it via google... if you pay they will delete it off there site.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah I know the data is NOT FROM Google.  And I know the data shown is public data.   Docketbird allows Google to crawl their site so that the public information shows up in Google Search.  That's what I am getting at.  It's not from Google but it shows up in Google Search.  And yes I know it's public data. BUT in my mind it's pretty sleazy for Docketbird to do this. Basically if the data is from Pacer Docketbird is is opening the doors to Pacer.  Pacer keeps the data private unless you activily go in and do a search. Other sites that specifically show public court data like Docketbird don't let Google crawl their sites. I only say that because Docketbird was the only one that showed up in my search results.   Sites like MyLife though that give more info then just public court documents, and that allow Google to crawl their site (So it shows up in Google search), actually will for free delete your data from their site when asked.  I've done it and it's happened.  I've gotten my data deleted from a variety of sites for free. 

Again I know that a bankruptcy is public.  So anyone can do a search BUT not everyone wants the world to know about it. Out of site out of mind.  Docketbird is just relying on the fact that people will pay to have their data hidden/deleted. The bankruptcy doesn't define me so I do not need everyone to know about it. 

Anyway my question was do they actually delete it? But sounds like you didn't do it. But thanks. 

[FireMedic1]

Welcome to the forum. This has been on here for 5 days and no one has answered your question. Many data mining sites buy from the courts and many other areas to put on their websites. So they are trying to recoup what they bought. Your question may be answered by a phone call. Looks like no one here has dealt with this Docketbird site. If you want it off the site. Pay it and move on. Sucks but privavcy these days online is gone. Your smart phone puts more info on you out there than 1 website. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm the founder and CEO of DocketBird. I wanted to answer your question and give a bit of background about what we do. The bottom line is this: we do not charge people to remove their cases from DocketBird.

DocketBird has over ten million cases and documents that we make freely available to the public. The overwhelming reaction that we've received from the public is positive -- we have an enormous number of documents and cases that aren't available for free anywhere else.

But, as you can imagine, some companies and individuals don't like having cases available online that pertain to them. This is especially true if a company has been successfully sued, or if an individual has declared bankruptcy or been convicted of a federal crime.

We've spent a lot of time thinking about this. We want to fulfill our mission of making information freely available, and yet we also want to respect the fact that people want certain information to remain private.

So here's our policy: a party to a case can request us to remove their case at no charge by filling out a form that's available on our website and mailing it to us. We review the form to ensure that the requestor really is a party to the case. If they are, we'll remove the case, at no charge.

Despite having this policy, we sometimes hear from angry people who want their cases removed immediately, without having to fill out a form. We also get angry emails and phone calls from people who want us, in addition to removing their case, to proactively send an expedited removal request to Google, to ensure that the old version of the page disappears from Google immediately. If people really feel like they need that service, we do charge a fee for it.

Overall, dealing with all of this has been an enormous distraction from our core business, which is servicing law firms. In fact, we are losing money dealing with removal requests, as we have to pay someone to process the removals. The optional fee for expedited deindexing requests to Google has helped to recoup costs, but even what that is considered, this is not how DocketBird makes money.

I hope you find this helpful.

[Anonymous]

Just clarifying...if Pacer already provides this "public" case info for all to search and access-why are you putting on your site to show up in searches? This is just a ploy to make money off what Pacer is already providing. This is ridiculous to charge people for removal per not wanting their job, businesses, nonprofits, and/or prospective employers seeing bk info as soon as name is googled...Pacer already does what docketbird claims to be doing...

[Anonymous]

I am being harmed by them and doing everything I can to take action.  They are a dubious company and if you follow the research trail, you will find that it is a completely unethical business that is trying to make money off of our personal information.  They need to be taken to court and we should get as many people as possible together to order them to stop gathering very private information form government sources (bankruptcies can be researched legally for a specific purpose), and then distributing the information all over the web IN DETAIL for anyone and everyone to read, just when they do a simple search of your name.  To have it removed - supposedly - they are asking for $$$ and also for PERSONAL INFORMATION SUCH AS YOUR FULL DRIVER'S LICENSE AND PASSPORT.  Who know what they will do with that information.  There is a form to print for removal but they say it takes 6-8 weeks to process AND there is no guarantee that they will remove it.  They are supposedly in Portland, OR but another site says Vancouver, Washington, and they have a California Bay area telephone area code.  It's 2 guys - Todd Kennedy and Derek Teller.  One of them says he went to Yale.  Why on earth would he want to harm people and spend his time defaming people and doing unethical acts??  If you have any further information or suggestions, please write.

[Anonymous]

I am disgusted and want to do something about this.  I refuse to pay them money to take off what they put on just to make more money off of my very personal information!  please see my earlier comment about what happened to us.