HN user
CEO and Founder at Optery (YC W22): https://www.optery.com
Co-Founder at Screenleap (YC W12): https://www.screenleap.com
Bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gentilello/
Optery has been flagging the conflict of interest between OneRep and Nuwber for years and put a statement out with our position following the Krebs article:
https://www.optery.com/optery-statement-following-investigat...
Optery hasn't addressed that yet, but right now starts at the source (the data brokers), and then submits removal requests to Google directly via their Outdated Content Removal Tool. Here's now it works: https://www.optery.com/optery-and-googles-content-removal-to...
Obviously I'm biased so I think Optery is better, but here are two un-biased reviews written by the lead analyst for security at PCMag.com:
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/optery
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/the-kanary
Here's another well-researched and unbiased review:
https://blog.infostruction.com/2023/08/12/privacy-powerhouse...
For an alternative, take a look at Optery (YC W22). We've been flagging the situation at OneRep for years and put a statement out following the Krebs article (link below). We launched to the public as a Show HN in 2021 and as a Launch HN in 2022. Full disclosure, I'm one of the Optery founders.
https://www.optery.com/optery-statement-following-investigat...
Would Optery for Family help?
Optery cancelation is 100% self-service from inside the app per the instructions on the Help Desk. And if you can’t figure out how to do it yourself, just send us an email and we’ll do it for you.
Yes - Optery for Family is very popular - here's how it works: https://help.optery.com/en/article/getting-started-with-opte...
Thanks for the follow up! Scans for multiple phones and emails is something we're working on so stay tuned on that, and don't hesitate to contact customer support with any questions along the way!
Also, you mentioned using Experian's data removal service previously. Do you mind me asking how many exposed profiles the Optery scan located that Experian missed?
The core of Optery's search functionality is "person" centric. Meaning we start with searches by name, city, state, and age to find "you" regardless of which underlying email or phone number the data broker has on record for you. Because in many cases data brokers may have no email or phone on file for you at all (only home address), or they may have a really old phone or email you have forgotten about. When data removal service scans focus only on phone numbers and email addresses, a lot can get missed. Many people search sites are not even queryable by phone or email, and are only queryable by name, city, and state. Optery does search for phones and emails, but you are correct in that it currently limits them to just one each from the customer at this time. We plan to release the scan on demand feature you referenced in the next few months.
That said, Optery recursively searches through data exposed by data brokers to alleviate the need to input numerous old phones and emails by the customer. In PCMag.com review they said this of Optery's recursive phone number search functionality:
"It uses data found in data broker profiles to recursively expand its reach. For example, in my latest testing, I only gave it my current phone number, but it found records associated with an old number that I used for some 25 years."
That's great feedback! We'll add more pricing detail to the Family page. For comparison, here is the Optery pricing page: https://www.optery.com/pricing/
Agreed on the dark pattern, and yes, Optery's Ultimate plan currently covers 300+ data brokers by default and offers unlimited Custom Removals. Optery has a team that's continually testing and adding more sites to the coverage defaults. There are several options, Free, Paid, Family, Business at different prices. For full disclosure, I'm one of the Optery founders, as mentioned previously.
No federal law in the U.S. yet unfortunately, but more states are passing laws by the day (fortunately): https://iapp.org/resources/article/us-state-privacy-legislat...
Optery offers a family plan: https://www.optery.com/family/
This is a great suggestion and we would like to add this. Not because it would provide any revenue lift though, but because it is what some Optery customers have been asking for, e.g. can I have a lower cost subscription that runs every other month, or every three months, etc. Technically, you can do this today by cancelling and re-starting a Monthly subscription at your desired cadence, or pausing and re-starting your subscription periodically, but that requires manual effort. A configurable cadence is definitely on our backlog though.
Many data brokers will not permit third party services to remove the data without a signed limited power of attorney. Note that the power of attorney is limited to interactions for submitting removal requests and opt outs.
Optery founder here. We did a deep dive comparison between DeleteMe and Optery (https://www.optery.com/deleteme-review/). The biggest takeaway is you have to scroll to the bottom of the DeleteMe Sites We Remove From page and read the fine print on what is covered by the plan you are purchasing. The "750+ Data Brokers" written across the top of the page is misleading. The standard plan covers about ~90 sites.
Optery founder here. We did a deep dive comparison between Incogni and Optery (https://www.optery.com/incogni-review/). The biggest takeaway is Incogni, at this time, does not cover many of the most popular people search sites like Whitepages, TruePeopleSearch, Spokeo, RocketReach, ThatsThem, BeenVerified, TruthFinder, InstantCheckmate, and many others. Most Incogni reviews you'll find online are written by their affiliate partners.
Affiliate programs have application processes intended to filter out bad actors and mis-alignment with a brand. To use an extreme example, a web site promoting terrorism would typically be rejected. Approving data brokers as affiliate partners for a data broker removal service is viewed by many as questionable. To use an another extreme example, how would you feel about an anti-virus software company that approved as affiliate partners creators and distributors of computer virus programs.
Yes - I flagged myself as an Optery founder on my first comment, but as you mentioned the comment was subsequently flagged and hidden from view. It is also made clear here: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=beyondd
Yes - I flagged myself as an Optery founder on my first comment, but the comment was subsequently flagged and hidden from view (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39276106). It is also made clear here: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=beyondd
Your point is spot on. Data removal services have an aspect where a ton of value is obtained in the first 1 - 4 months as the majority of profiles are wiped away, and then after that you're sort of in maintenance mode where the service catches profiles as they pop back up, or when new data brokers are added to the system for coverage.
Optery generally has 2 types of customers:
- The first type are those that care a lot about their privacy and the cost of an ongoing subscription is insignificant to them, so they keep the service running on an ongoing basis for the ongoing automated scans and removals and for getting new data brokers they get coverage for immediately as they are added into the system.
- The second type of customer is more price conscious and is basically looking back and forth between their credit card statement and their Optery dashboard each month and then they either pause or cancel the subscription when they feel they're reached a good stopping point. Optery's pause subscription feature is very popular for this type of customer and you can use it to automatically re-start the service in 3, 6, 9 months, etc.
- Another thing to point out is many other services only offer Yearly subscriptions, Optery offers Yearly or Monthly. If you're price conscious, the Monthly is nice because you can turn it on and off, or pause it as you wish.
More detail on the topic of keeping Optery running on an ongoing basis is on the Optery Help Desk here:
https://help.optery.com/en/article/why-should-i-keep-my-opte...
Optery customers get Removals Reports every 90 days. PCMag.com wrote this about the Optery Removals Report: "With the Removals report, you see what was found along with a new screenshot demonstrating that the data was removed, and a link to verify the removal. No other personal data removal service I’ve seen gives you this level of verification."
For many its just getting their home address, phone number and email off the web, which can make you less of an easy target by attackers. For others its something really specific, like someone who is divorced and doesn't want their name showing up next to their ex's name as a spouse or relative. For others, they want their age off the web to prevent age discrimination in a job search. Others may be hiding from an abuser or stalker.
Optery also has a Help Desk article on this catch-22 where in order to opt out of data broker sites, you must first tell them who you are, otherwise, how else would they know who to opt out: https://help.optery.com/en/article/what-information-does-opt...
One of the issues are OneRep's affiliate partnerships with the very data brokers you're paying them to remove you from: https://imgur.com/a/juSC66b
haveibeenpwned.com provides data breach monitoring, but does not remove personal info from data broker sites as Optery and Mozilla Monitor do.
Optery founder here. If you're taking a look at Mozilla Monitor, I recommend taking a look at Optery too:
- Optery's Ultimate plan covers 300+ data broker sites and offers Unlimited Custom Removals providing the most comprehensive coverage in the industry. Optery has a variety of plans for different coverage needs (Free, Paid, Family, Business), and the ability to pause or cancel a subscription at any time.
- Mozilla Monitor Plus is powered by OneRep, which partners with data brokers through its affiliate program: https://imgur.com/a/juSC66b. This is a fine line most data removal services do not cross. Optery's removals are proprietary and are not powered by any other company.
- Optery (YC W22) was awarded the Fast Company Next Big Things in Tech in 2023 and PCMag.com Editor's Choice award in 2022 and 2023, over DeleteMe, Kanary, Incogni, IDX Privacy, etc.
- Optery has completed its SOC 2, Type II security certification. To our knowledge, DeleteMe is the only other data removal service with this certification. This is probably the most overlooked attribute when selecting a data removal service.
Optery founder here, we're a YC company (W22) that automatically scans and removes people from hundreds of these sites. (for U.S. residents only)
There's a catch 22 where you have to be comfortable enough to submit your information to these sites' opt out pages in order for them to take it down. But if you do nothing, it continues to proliferate unchecked.
Most people don't have the time or inclination to submit opt out requests to data brokers directly, let alone stay on top of when information inevitably pops back up. This is where data removal services like Optery come in, but there's also a similar catch 22 where you have to trust the company you're using. Most companies in the data removal space are trustworthy, but some are not. Along the lines of trustworthiness, one of the most underrated attributes of a data removal service is its security credentials. Optery has its SOC 2, Type II security certification, whereas most other services do not.
If you already use a different service such as DeleteMe, Kanary, or Incogni, you can run a free Optery scan to see what they've missed. The free Optery scan typically produces 50 - 100 screenshots of places your info is published online.
Optery was launched to the public on HackerNews as a Show HN before we got into YC, and again as a Launch HN after we got into YC. Lots of great insights on the topic of removing info from data brokers in those threads:
I think part of the change is the white pages was distributed in hard copy in your community. So only a finite number of people would have access and it would be costly to re-publish or re-distribute that hard copy information. Now anyone in the world has access and its practically cost-less to re-publish and re-distribute the information in digital form.
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