Proclaiming from the rooftops...

elljay · 28 December 2014 at 7:48PM

....or as good as!

Firstly a local authority who is one of my creditors (relatively small amount) wrote addressing the letter to Mrs AB Elljay (BANKRUPT), 1 The Road, Anytown etc. Announcing my bankruptcy to the postie, who is a neighbour and also a workmate of a close relative and the biggest gossip in the village. I've asked the LA to desist but the harm has been done now.

Then tonight, when I was looking for a neighbours address, the Gazette entry for my bankruptcy came up as no 4 on google. Around here we have several similar properties, so *** House, *** Farm, *** Top, *** Cottage and so on. Theirs is *** Farm and mine is *** Cottage. Google thus proclaimed to anyone else looking for their or any other neighbours address. I then tried a name check on myself and lo and behold, the Gazette entry is No 2, on a page with details of all the other nice community and voluntary things I am involved in. So anyone connected with any of those things will easily find the Gazette entry.

I had always assumed the Gazette entry would only be found by people deliberately searching the actual Gazette, after all, Google doesn't find the insolvency service record. Does anyone know if there is anything I can do to stop this from happening? Would the Gazette remove the entry? Surely I have some right to privacy and dignity?
Thanks

EJ ......crawling back into my hole with my duvet over my head, can I move house under cover of darkness I wonder?

fermi · 29 December 2014 at 6:44AM

Years ago it was the case that the Gazette did their best to make sure their entries were not crawled and indexed by Google etc. Problem is that web indexers continually adapt and change, so every so often that fails.

Try contacting the Gazette, so if they they are still trying to do that then at least they know where it is failing.

TheGardener · 29 December 2014 at 10:12AM

You must be feeling awful - I had letters from the long term assets team who's postal frank mark was 'Insolvency Service' clearly in red at the top of the envelope. It is a it tow curling but at least the local papers no longer print the lists in the Announcements column

Console yourself by reading the very long list of 'famous' BR's here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/420969 and if anyone comments on your BR - just tell them what good company you are in and remember - almost everyone is only one misfortune away from BR and you are probably one of the very few in your village who has no debt

elljay · 29 December 2014 at 1:46PM

Thank you. Yes I do feel really bad, almost not wanting to show my face outside. One of my family or their friends is bound to have seen it by now, kids often google family names when they have nothing else to do. If my very elderly mother found it it could kill her and she and her friends are always digging about looking at the family tree etc. She's only just got used to babies being born out of wedlock, and gay marriages and women bishops mean we are all doomed to hell. Bankruptcy is in the same category!

I have contacted The Gazette and Google, hopefully someone will be sympathetic and take it down soon. Otherwise I'm serious about moving house. The local paper would have been better, at least it's only local and not many people read those official notices anyway.

Presumably the rest of us are easily findable too - surely I can't be the only one bothered by this, after all it could affect our ability to get jobs for example, as employers often do a simple google check on prospective employees. There's plenty about me on the net which would make me employable, but this near the top of the page would kill those prospects stone dead.

Thanks

EJ

alastairq · 29 December 2014 at 1:57PM

I went as far as page 10 on Google....and aside from 192. and linkedin, [where my name is present, but few if any other details]....no mention of anything else, no images, nothing.

fermi · 29 December 2014 at 2:00PM

Most people won't be findable. I'm certainly not.

It's just bad luck where the Google crawler has found a way in and indexed some of the entries. It has not managed to crawl all of them though.

elljay · 29 December 2014 at 2:02PM

Thanks Alastair. Did you put your name and the name of your town in? Just my surname and my village brings up my Gazette entry as 2nd response on page 1. Are you discharged? Maybe that makes the difference. Surely it can't just be me.

fermi · 29 December 2014 at 2:07PM

Not just you: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bankruptcy+site:thegazette.co.uk

elljay · 29 December 2014 at 2:12PM

Thanks Fermi. This doesn't seem right. Don't we have any rights to privacy at all? Although it's true that big names have become bankrupt, bankruptcy still has a huge stigma and I for one am thoroughly humiliated and depressed by this.

Thanks again, from a very tearful EJ.

fermi · 29 December 2014 at 2:15PM

Have you done this?

https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_eudpa?product=websearch

Google might refuse, but must be worth a go.

elljay · 29 December 2014 at 2:27PM

Hi Fermi, yes I have, thanks. I had an automated response asking for more info which I've sent them but I'm not sure they'll do anything. Perhaps I don't have any rights to privacy at all.

Someone said something slightly barbed to me at work on Saturday, I didn't understand at the time but now I do. So they know at work. Who else?

Proclaiming from the rooftops...

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