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Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#111

Post by jamal-kumar »

jonthepirate wrote: post #95

16 years ago, my first Bay Area engineering job was at Reputation Defender. I helped create their first product - the EXACT same thing it looks like Optery is making. Make no mistake, the company was named "reputation defender" but it was optery. Even in 2006, the problem was the same and the solution seems roughly the same. Reputation Defender rebranded a few times. I don't think they have this feature anymore. Migh…

Then how come I know some very rich people who have managed to opt out so hard I can't even see their old messages?

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#112

Post by jamal-kumar »

I'm just insanely glad to not reside in countries where data privacy laws are completely horrible.

The amount of OSINT available on americans is like 2-3$ to access and on each search I can see stuff in your family history even which is just incredibly crazy. Doesn't work on people from other countries.

Food for thought.

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#113

Post by austinjp »

"Optery only works for U.S. residents at this time". It would be good to have this clearly stated before the user starts the sign-up process. It's a dark pattern to permit account creation if you can't actually provide a service to some of those signing up.

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#114

Post by Gasp0de »

beyondd wrote: post #48
benrapscallion wrote: post #27

I’m signed up for this service and while I am generally satisfied, they have placed some of the most common websites in their most expensive tier. If I contact their customer service, they write back with a condescending tone.

We hate to hear that you had a bad experience with our customer support since we take it very seriously and spend a large amount of time on it. We love feedback and respond to all inquiries, so please don’t hesitate to tell us how we can improve either here or through our standard support channel, and we will definitely act on it: https://help.optery.com/ The pricing tiers have to do with how difficult it is to remov…

When you say "most difficult", what exactly does it mean? I highly doubt that you are manually conversing with any of them.

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#116

Post by seb1204 »

beyondd wrote: post #9
newman314 wrote: post #6

The Ultimate plan is supposed to cover BlockShopper. From the last time I looked at this several years ago, it is basically impossible to remove information from BlockShopper. What has changed?

We have a page up on our Help Desk referencing data brokers that ignore opt out requests (the 5% mentioned in the post above). We refer to these data brokers as "Dishonorable Data Brokers". BlockShopper is one of them. We prefer not to give Dishonorable Data Brokers a free pass, and continue to pursue multiple channels to have our customers' profiles removed from these data brokers, even if they are currently "Dishon…

Are you using or following legal means to remove the records?

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#117

Post by schemathings »

beyondd wrote: post #98
istjohn wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, your second point is just the tip of the sleaze-burg. All those sites they showed as having your information also seem to have info on "Notareal Personxxx": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30610432

This is a product experience defect, and is not intended to be deceptive. Several comments have cried “foul” on this one and we hear it loud and clear. We apologize this has persisted in the product, and can definitely see how this can be misleading. To explain what’s happening from the inside, immediately after the sign up, we retrofit the profile data you’ve input at the signup process into our URL templates for ea…

It's funny I parsed the dummy name "Notareal Personxxx" as 'Notary-something' and thought maybe this was some type of legal proxy account.

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#118

Post by ivberrOg »

beyondd wrote: post #98
istjohn wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, your second point is just the tip of the sleaze-burg. All those sites they showed as having your information also seem to have info on "Notareal Personxxx": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30610432

This is a product experience defect, and is not intended to be deceptive. Several comments have cried “foul” on this one and we hear it loud and clear. We apologize this has persisted in the product, and can definitely see how this can be misleading. To explain what’s happening from the inside, immediately after the sign up, we retrofit the profile data you’ve input at the signup process into our URL templates for ea…

it's deceptive at step 1, and you're selling trust.

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#119

Post by cacarbonate »

setgree wrote: post #77

Hi there, just signed up for your free service, and wow, it's creepy to see my childhood home phone number just sitting there next to my name and current address so many times. Three things: First, I'm looking at your paid plans, and what I actually want right now is just to pay $10 to have this current batch taken care of, and then I can repeat the process any time I happen to think about it. I know that's not what…

> what I actually want right now is just to pay $10 to have this current batch taken care of

easyoptouts is the closest thing I know of to what you're after. It's still a subscription at $20 p.a., not $10, but you can sign up and then cancel after initial opt outs.

Re: Launch HN: Optery (YC W22) – Remove your personal info from the internet

#120

Post by jimmydorry »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #111
jonthepirate wrote: post #95

16 years ago, my first Bay Area engineering job was at Reputation Defender. I helped create their first product - the EXACT same thing it looks like Optery is making. Make no mistake, the company was named "reputation defender" but it was optery. Even in 2006, the problem was the same and the solution seems roughly the same. Reputation Defender rebranded a few times. I don't think they have this feature anymore. Migh…

Then how come I know some very rich people who have managed to opt out so hard I can't even see their old messages?

I imagine having a team of layers work on this problem for a year or two could result in going on a “do not mess with” list amongst the majority of data brokers. Your information might be worth a few bucks, but I reckon a rich person’s data (who is willing to put on the pressure) is a liability.
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