The parent company of Mugshots.com, a website that pulls arrest photos from local police departments, publishes them on the internet and then attempts to charge a fee to have the images removed, was sued in a Broward County court, after extorting the man for money in order to remove the image.

This is just one of a long line of cases in which the company has been sued. More bad news for the owners; they’ve been charged with extortion in California and two are already in custody.

In the past few years, a new business has emerged; online companies who post embarrassing information, such as arrests, and then charges victims a fee to remove them.

In 2018, the Florida legislature enacted a new law that says:

   34         (2) A person whose arrest booking photograph is published
   35  or otherwise disseminated, or his or her legal representative,
   36  may make a request, in writing, for the removal of an arrest
   37  booking photograph to the registered agent of the person or
   38  entity who published or otherwise disseminated the photograph.
   39  The written request for removal of the arrest booking photograph
   40  must be sent by registered mail and include sufficient proof of
   41  identification of the person whose arrest booking photograph was
   42  published or otherwise disseminated and specific information
   43  identifying the arrest booking photograph that the written
   44  request is seeking to remove. Within 10 days of receipt of the
   45  written request for removal of the arrest booking photograph,
   46  the person or entity who published or otherwise disseminated the
   47  photograph shall remove the arrest booking photograph without
   48  charge.

This law goes into effect.on July 1, 2018.

That means, beginning this July – you can write to the website owner and demand that your information be removed from their site.

We are still determining whether the law will impact sites such as http://www.bustedoffenders.com/, https://www.homefacts.com/offenders.html, whose business model is not to charge for removal, but to charge for a background check service or notifications.

 

DC VIGIL: March 15th @ 10AM EST. Attend in person or via Zoom. CLICK HERE FOR INFO
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