A growing number of websites sell (or give freely) the personal information of individuals. These online information brokers (also known as data brokers or data vendors) gather personal information from many sources including white pages listings (directory assistance), publicly-available sources and public records. Some information brokers also offer the ability to conduct "social searches," which gather information by searching public profiles on social networking sites.

Types of information available via these databases may include:

Full name
Physical address
Marital status
Telephone number
Relatives
A wide range of other information - from your date of birth, how much you owe on a mortgage to the ages of your children

If you simply Google your name websites such as :
whitepages.com
mylife.com
spokeo.com
411locate.com
pipl.com
And many others will popup and offer your personal information for sale.

Not everyone want to share everything about them with the world. Most of data brokers will ask you to mail them a letter explaining why do you want your information removed along with valid photo ID. All of them make it extremely difficult to find the requirements and the mailing address on the web sites. There has to be easier way to confirm someones identity. Maybe email, link on the website or a simple phone call. Answering personal question or two may do the trick. After all we are living in the 21st century and mailing letters with your personal information across the country is the last thing most of us want to do.