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Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

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Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#11

Post by gigel82 »

Be very careful with any tool like this; you'll need to prove who you are by verifying an email address and / or phone number to your real name, which in turn will most likely "confirm" your data with all the upstream brokers (if you pay for some extra service you're twice a sucker with them most likely getting paid by brokers for proving your identity and by you as well for using the "service").

Note: this could be totally legit but in my personal experience, 100% of the tools that promise to do this were in fact shady as fuck and working with the brokers to enrich their data.

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#12

Post by johnrob »

gigel82 wrote: post #11

Be very careful with any tool like this; you'll need to prove who you are by verifying an email address and / or phone number to your real name, which in turn will most likely "confirm" your data with all the upstream brokers (if you pay for some extra service you're twice a sucker with them most likely getting paid by brokers for proving your identity and by you as well for using the "service"). Note: this could be…

Sadly, I doubt the brokers have much concern about their data being inaccurate!

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#13

Post by gigel82 »

johnrob wrote: post #12
gigel82 wrote: post #11

Be very careful with any tool like this; you'll need to prove who you are by verifying an email address and / or phone number to your real name, which in turn will most likely "confirm" your data with all the upstream brokers (if you pay for some extra service you're twice a sucker with them most likely getting paid by brokers for proving your identity and by you as well for using the "service"). Note: this could be…

Sadly, I doubt the brokers have much concern about their data being inaccurate!

I used a tool like this posted to HackerNews a couple years back (against my better judgement, eh), and the information on a few of the data brokers afterwards was not only not removed but actually showed a green checkmark ("verified").

It's entirely possible the data brokers are simply using the "opt out" requests as a way to validate the data, but it's just as likely that the tool works with the brokers to confirm information instead of actually removing it.

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#14

Post by beyondd »

qqw wrote: post #9

Doesn't supplying all this info about myself just confirm that it is correct, thus further putting my privacy at risk? > For each user, we typically turn up 2X – 5X more profile match results than Google, or any of our competitors How? Is it different than manually looking up my info at each site listed under "which data brokers are covered by each plan?" Not a bad idea for a business, you sell them my data then char…

We do not sell data. We are not a data broker.

People sign up with us to see what information data brokers are posting about them online, and then are provided with free and paid options to opt out and have themselves removed.

Yes - you could manually look up your info at each site listed under "which data brokers are covered by each plan?" - which would take you many, many hours, or you could create an account with Optery and have us do it for you automatically.

The data brokers most likely already have info on you. There is a catch22 where in order to opt out, you have to tell them who you are. Other services use your own private email address to submit the opt outs. We do not share your private email address with any third party, including the data brokers we submit opt outs to.

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#17

Post by cdstyh »

beyondd wrote: post #14
qqw wrote: post #9

Doesn't supplying all this info about myself just confirm that it is correct, thus further putting my privacy at risk? > For each user, we typically turn up 2X – 5X more profile match results than Google, or any of our competitors How? Is it different than manually looking up my info at each site listed under "which data brokers are covered by each plan?" Not a bad idea for a business, you sell them my data then char…

We do not sell data. We are not a data broker. People sign up with us to see what information data brokers are posting about them online, and then are provided with free and paid options to opt out and have themselves removed. Yes - you could manually look up your info at each site listed under "which data brokers are covered by each plan?" - which would take you many, many hours, or you could create an account with…

Can I know your name, address, and phone number please?

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#18

Post by myself248 »

The pricing page doesn't make it clear why it's charged monthly, when it seems like this should be a one-time thing. What happens if I pay for a month, get all the opt-outs, and stop paying?

My cynicism says that an unethical service in your position could hold my identity hostage and immediately re-publish anything as soon as I stop paying. I'm sure you're not doing that, but forgive me for thinking it; we're talking about an entire industry that rests on ethics that many of us would consider stalking and should be profoundly illegal, so the possibility of such behavior is palpable! So, it would be good to explain or clarify _that_ you're not holding me hostage, and lay out the value proposition for an ongoing subscription to what feels like a one-time event.

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#19

Post by beyondd »

gigel82 wrote: post #11

Be very careful with any tool like this; you'll need to prove who you are by verifying an email address and / or phone number to your real name, which in turn will most likely "confirm" your data with all the upstream brokers (if you pay for some extra service you're twice a sucker with them most likely getting paid by brokers for proving your identity and by you as well for using the "service"). Note: this could be…

Hi! Co-creator of Optery here.

We do not sell data. We are not a data broker. We do not have any financial relationship with any data broker. We are not affiliated with any data broker.

We are privacy enthusiasts who believe consumers should be in full control of their data. You can learn more about our mission, background and values here: https://www.optery.com/about-us/

There are some bad actors out there unfortunately. The most well-known is OneRep, which has an opt out and removals business, but are owned by an ownership group that simultaneously runs the People Search Site data broker Nuwber. It's almost certain that they run off the same data spine, meaning your data is co-mingled. Another one is BrandYourself, which includes data brokers as part of its affiliate program. So if you pay them for removals, you are indirectly paying the data brokers. There are others that I have a strong suspicion of, but don't know for certain, so I won't risk sharing their names.

But please don’t lump the rest of us working hard to protect people from data brokers into that same bucket. Along with us, DeleteMe, PrivacyDuck, and Kanary and a few others are above-board with no affiliation or financial relationship with any data broker (to the best of my knowledge). Just working hard for consumer data rights.

The data brokers most likely already have info on you. There is a catch22 where in order to opt out, you have to tell them who you are. Other services use your own private email address to submit the opt outs. We do not share your private email address with any third party, including the data brokers we submit opt outs to.

Re: Show HN: Optery – See the private info data brokers are posting about you online

#20

Post by photoGrant »

All you need to know:

> If you purchase a paid subscription plan, as a condition to fulfilling your subscription plan, (i) you must provide your personally identifiable information(“PII”) such as full name, birth year and home address to Optery, Inc. and (ii) Optery, Inc. must send your PII to the data brokers and information aggregators included in the Removal Lists. This information is required by the data brokers and information aggregators in order to locate your record(s) and remove you from their database(s). We cannot control, guarantee or warranty how these third-parties will treat your PII or what they will do with it. By purchasing and maintaining an active paid subscription, you approve Optery, Inc. to submit your PII to data brokers and information aggregators for the purposes submitting opt out, suppression and removal requests. If you do not wish to submit your PII to data brokers and information aggregators for the purposes submitting opt out, suppression and removal requests, then you should not use Optery, Inc.’s Removal Services.

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