Live data from Hacker News

Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

blog.mozilla.org

121–130 of 206 posts

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#121

> we can automatically and continuously request to remove your personal information with an annual paid subscription of $8.99 per month ($107.88 a year). This is a lot of money for most people. What would the benefit be of doing this all the time versus just subscribing once a year? How quickly do details reappear in databases?

I'm given to understand these data broker services make it as painful and time-consuming to opt out as they can. Supposing you can even find all the places you're listed (Optery supports 305+ sites), it sounds like a substantial time commitment to follow through on all of them.

I signed up, and Mozilla warns it takes 7-14 days for data on most of these sites to be removed. They must need to do a lot of things by hand. This would also explain why you get 1 scan per month.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#122
post #109
post #7

I’m a happy, long term Optery user (not affiliated) and they take care of 100% of this for you. https://www.optery.com The Mozilla offering looks somewhat comparable, but I do wonder if they’re going to beat a company which has the sole focus of solving this problem.

Haha wow it's actually asking me to sign over LIMITED POWER OF ATTORNEY. It's optional but says it's recommended. That's a nope from me.

Isn't it to be expected? I guess that they have to make demands on your behalf to have your data removed. I guess that's optional because they can still work without it is some cases, and ask you on a case-by-case basis for others, but that's extra work for you and for them, so they may not do it, at least not on the lower tier pricing.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm given to understand these data broker services make it as painful and time-consuming to opt out as they can. Supposing you can even find all the places you're listed (Optery supports 305+ sites), it sounds like a substantial time commitment to follow through on all of them.

I signed up, and Mozilla warns it takes 7-14 days for data on most of these sites to be removed. They must need to do a lot of things by hand. This would also explain why you get 1 scan per month.

These sites deliberately are slow in the removal of requests. So there is both manual sending but also needing to re-check if the site actually removed your info because brokers just kind of suck.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#124
post #109
post #7

I’m a happy, long term Optery user (not affiliated) and they take care of 100% of this for you. https://www.optery.com The Mozilla offering looks somewhat comparable, but I do wonder if they’re going to beat a company which has the sole focus of solving this problem.

Haha wow it's actually asking me to sign over LIMITED POWER OF ATTORNEY. It's optional but says it's recommended. That's a nope from me.

Why? You limit the power of attorney to the ability to remove your data from data brokers.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#125
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry about that. The form should only be shown for people in the USA, but detecting the country you're in can't be done perfectly. Which is a good reminder - we'll look into making the US-only part clearer. (I'm an engineer on Monitor.)

I'm also not clear why this is US only. There's definitely a market in other areas of the world. I'd be interested to know why it should be US only.

[deleted]

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#127

Doesn't look like there is a place to enter past addresses. In the last 15 years I've moved ~10 times. Would be nice to have a way to check those as well.

Anecdote: I provided one zip code and it found a past address in another zip code — but I've only ever had two addresses total under this legal identity, so that doesn't speak to how far back it goes.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#128
post #109
post #7

I’m a happy, long term Optery user (not affiliated) and they take care of 100% of this for you. https://www.optery.com The Mozilla offering looks somewhat comparable, but I do wonder if they’re going to beat a company which has the sole focus of solving this problem.

Haha wow it's actually asking me to sign over LIMITED POWER OF ATTORNEY. It's optional but says it's recommended. That's a nope from me.

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.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#129
Do any of these offer family plans? I feel like At these price points, I would really like to sign up everyone in my household. The FAQ pages seem to all imply individual and I don't think I'm asking for a "business" or "enterprise" option.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#130
post #109
post #7

I’m a happy, long term Optery user (not affiliated) and they take care of 100% of this for you. https://www.optery.com The Mozilla offering looks somewhat comparable, but I do wonder if they’re going to beat a company which has the sole focus of solving this problem.

Haha wow it's actually asking me to sign over LIMITED POWER OF ATTORNEY. It's optional but says it's recommended. That's a nope from me.

Blame data brokers for making such asinine restrictions.

You can also just use the free version to collect a list of brokers your self and manually contact all of them to find out how much of a pain in the ass it is.

Post reply on HN