| 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: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27662114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30605010 |