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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 aff

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/ 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.

123pie123 5y ago
I've no idea if you're legit or not, but wouldn't a bad actor say the same thing? why should people trust you with their information?
- bingojess 5y ago
  Does a good actor actually have a way to prove they are legit? This comment is a little pointless because almost anything that need your data needs you to trust them.
  - bb88 5y ago
    A good actor doesn't ask for PII in the first place.
    - beyondd 5y ago
      In order to opt out of a data broker, you have to submit PII to them to tell them who you are, otherwise, they won't know who to opt out. The exception to this is if the data broker is using an anonymous identifier, like that stored in a browser cookie, in which case you would need to submit that anonymous identifier to them, or somehow give them access to it (e.g. via a browser request). The People Search Sites we submit opt outs to all transact in raw PII, therefore, if you want to opt out, either you have to submit your own raw PII to them (or a hashed version, where you and the data broker share the key so the underlying profile can be matched) to the data broker so they can identify you, or you can utilize a third-party opt out service (such as Optery) to do this for you. In either case, submitting raw PII to the data broker for them to identify you and opt you out is required. We only submit to data brokers the minimum amount of information necessary for them to locate your profile, and then remove it, which, in the majority of cases is: First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, City, State, and an email address. If you do a few manual searches at data brokers, you'll see all of this information is already out there. Note that we never share our customers private email addresses with any third party, including the data brokers we submit opt outs to.
      - bb88 5y ago
        Right. Then you sell your company. Then the TOS about my PII changes because that TOS is a one way contract subject to the whims of whichever entity owns it at some particular point in time. And then your company starts selling my PII, despite what you say in a non-legally binding comment on hacker news. So no thank you.
Hallucinaut 5y ago
Hey there, good luck with the venture and look forward to an EU/UK option. Just wanted to say IANAL but with putting your details out there as a founder and being in the US, unless you've had a lawyer check over your statements I would be very cautious about naming companies specifically. Would recommend anonymising it or deleting that comment if you can't edit it, unless you've already had it checked out. Ethics isn't part of their business model so any statement without hard facts backing it can get you into trouble.
megablast 5y ago
How do you guarantee any data you use is not sold later on down the line??
- beyondd 5y ago
  Per our Privacy Policy: “We don’t sell or rent your personal information to any third parties for any purpose. You are the only owner of your Personal Data and can request disclosure or deletion at any time.” Also included in our Privacy Policy, as is standard terms in most privacy policies: “If we are involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred.” You can learn more from our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service here: https://www.optery.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.optery.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.optery.com/terms-of-service/ https://www.optery.com/terms-of-service/
ParanoidalMouse 5y ago
Looks like a scam. I’ve subscribed to see if Optery is able to at least scan those 150 sites they promise to remove listings from. The dashboard showed they found me on 168 sites. Some results contained links to data brokers. Tried to follow some of them - they returned either 404 or data broker’s page without my information. On their site Optery says “Our dashboard provides dynamically generated custom deep links you can click through to view your profile at most of these sites.” I got suspicious and registered once again to check how bad things are. This time I searched for a fictitious name from a fictitious city: John Queizi9Joot9Eiyohkeigh4Cohtae2Ae from Konohagakure, CA. Optery “found” this person on 168 sites once again. Lol, same 168 results for me and for fake me. Some screenshots: Scan results for non-existing name and city on data brokers sites: https://imgur.com/a/xFtTljS https://imgur.com/a/xFtTljS Non-existing profile on addresses.com Optery dashboard report links to https://imgur.com/a/KqTtlut https://imgur.com/a/KqTtlut So, what we have here: Optery looks like a fake. They disparade working tools while having no working tool of their own. Looks very much like a PII collecting masking itself as a privacy service.
ParanoidalMouse 5y ago
Looks like a scam. I’ve subscribed to see if Optery is able to at least scan those 150 sites they promise to remove listings from. The dashboard showed they found me on 168 sites. Some results contained links to data brokers. Tried to follow some of them - they returned either 404 or data broker’s page without my information. On their site Optery says “Our dashboard provides dynamically generated custom deep links you can click through to view your profile at most of these sites.” I got suspicious and registered once again to check how bad things are. This time I searched for a fictitious name from a fictitious city: John Queizi9Joot9Eiyohkeigh4Cohtae2Ae from Konohagakure, CA. Optery “found” this person on 168 sites once again. Lol, same 168 results for me and for fake me. Some screenshots: Scan results for non-existing name and city on data brokers sites: https://imgur.com/a/xFtTljS https://imgur.com/a/xFtTljS Non-existing profile on addresses.com Optery dashboard report links to https://imgur.com/a/KqTtlut https://imgur.com/a/KqTtlut So, what we have here: Optery looks like a fake. They disparade working tools while having no working tool of their own. Looks very much like a PII collecting masking itself as a privacy service.
- beyondd 5y ago
  The number “168” you referenced reflects the number of data brokers we cover, not the total number of times you’ve been “found”. I can see how this would be confusing though, so it is a good reminder to us that we need to implement better tool tips to make this more clear. In the screenshots you shared, see where it says “Your Exposure Risk Scan is in Progress”, with the green hourglass icon below it? That means your scan has not been completed yet, so actually we do not claim to have found you anywhere yet. If you input a fake name (as you mentioned), you will of course get bogus results. When you click through the links after inputting a fake name, you should expect to see 404 pages or “Not found” pages at the data brokers as you described. This is because of course the data broker cannot find the fake name you entered. I also can see how this may be confusing, so another reminder to us that we need to do a better job of implementing tool tips to make this more clear. Even if you input a real name, the “View” links will not always generate results. Here’s a quote from our Getting Started page where we explain how this works: “Sometimes these links are not perfect, and other people may be listed, or you might not be there at all, but in most cases, they allow you to quickly view a snapshot of where your personal details are exposed online. The quality of our results sometimes varies, for example, if you have a common name like “John Smith” or “Mary Smith”, it might be difficult to find your profiles among many others with the same name. Adding a middle name or a full birthdate to your Optery profile often helps. Keep in mind, we are constantly improving our platform, and we have a lot of things in the works to improve these results.” Link to full page here: https://www.optery.com/getting-started/ https://www.optery.com/getting-started/

123pie123 5y ago

I've no idea if you're legit or not, but wouldn't a bad actor say the same thing? why should people trust you with their information?

bingojess 5y ago
Does a good actor actually have a way to prove they are legit? This comment is a little pointless because almost anything that need your data needs you to trust them.
- bb88 5y ago
  A good actor doesn't ask for PII in the first place.
  - beyondd 5y ago
    In order to opt out of a data broker, you have to submit PII to them to tell them who you are, otherwise, they won't know who to opt out. The exception to this is if the data broker is using an anonymous identifier, like that stored in a browser cookie, in which case you would need to submit that anonymous identifier to them, or somehow give them access to it (e.g. via a browser request). The People Search Sites we submit opt outs to all transact in raw PII, therefore, if you want to opt out, either you have to submit your own raw PII to them (or a hashed version, where you and the data broker share the key so the underlying profile can be matched) to the data broker so they can identify you, or you can utilize a third-party opt out service (such as Optery) to do this for you. In either case, submitting raw PII to the data broker for them to identify you and opt you out is required. We only submit to data brokers the minimum amount of information necessary for them to locate your profile, and then remove it, which, in the majority of cases is: First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, City, State, and an email address. If you do a few manual searches at data brokers, you'll see all of this information is already out there. Note that we never share our customers private email addresses with any third party, including the data brokers we submit opt outs to.
    - bb88 5y ago
      Right. Then you sell your company. Then the TOS about my PII changes because that TOS is a one way contract subject to the whims of whichever entity owns it at some particular point in time. And then your company starts selling my PII, despite what you say in a non-legally binding comment on hacker news. So no thank you.

Hallucinaut 5y ago

Hey there, good luck with the venture and look forward to an EU/UK option. Just wanted to say IANAL but with putting your details out there as a founder and being in the US, unless you've had a lawyer check over your statements I would be very cautious about naming companies specifically. Would recommend anonymising it or deleting that comment if you can't edit it, unless you've already had it checked out. Ethics isn't part of their business model so any statement without hard facts backing it can get you into trouble.

megablast 5y ago

How do you guarantee any data you use is not sold later on down the line??

beyondd 5y ago
Per our Privacy Policy: “We don’t sell or rent your personal information to any third parties for any purpose. You are the only owner of your Personal Data and can request disclosure or deletion at any time.” Also included in our Privacy Policy, as is standard terms in most privacy policies: “If we are involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred.” You can learn more from our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service here: https://www.optery.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.optery.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.optery.com/terms-of-service/ https://www.optery.com/terms-of-service/

ParanoidalMouse 5y ago

Looks like a scam. I’ve subscribed to see if Optery is able to at least scan those 150 sites they promise to remove listings from. The dashboard showed they found me on 168 sites. Some results contained links to data brokers. Tried to follow some of them - they returned either 404 or data broker’s page without my information. On their site Optery says “Our dashboard provides dynamically generated custom deep links you can click through to view your profile at most of these sites.” I got suspicious and registered once again to check how bad things are. This time I searched for a fictitious name from a fictitious city: John Queizi9Joot9Eiyohkeigh4Cohtae2Ae from Konohagakure, CA. Optery “found” this person on 168 sites once again. Lol, same 168 results for me and for fake me. Some screenshots: Scan results for non-existing name and city on data brokers sites: https://imgur.com/a/xFtTljS https://imgur.com/a/xFtTljS Non-existing profile on addresses.com Optery dashboard report links to https://imgur.com/a/KqTtlut https://imgur.com/a/KqTtlut So, what we have here: Optery looks like a fake. They disparade working tools while having no working tool of their own. Looks very much like a PII collecting masking itself as a privacy service.

ParanoidalMouse 5y ago

beyondd 5y ago
The number “168” you referenced reflects the number of data brokers we cover, not the total number of times you’ve been “found”. I can see how this would be confusing though, so it is a good reminder to us that we need to implement better tool tips to make this more clear. In the screenshots you shared, see where it says “Your Exposure Risk Scan is in Progress”, with the green hourglass icon below it? That means your scan has not been completed yet, so actually we do not claim to have found you anywhere yet. If you input a fake name (as you mentioned), you will of course get bogus results. When you click through the links after inputting a fake name, you should expect to see 404 pages or “Not found” pages at the data brokers as you described. This is because of course the data broker cannot find the fake name you entered. I also can see how this may be confusing, so another reminder to us that we need to do a better job of implementing tool tips to make this more clear. Even if you input a real name, the “View” links will not always generate results. Here’s a quote from our Getting Started page where we explain how this works: “Sometimes these links are not perfect, and other people may be listed, or you might not be there at all, but in most cases, they allow you to quickly view a snapshot of where your personal details are exposed online. The quality of our results sometimes varies, for example, if you have a common name like “John Smith” or “Mary Smith”, it might be difficult to find your profiles among many others with the same name. Adding a middle name or a full birthdate to your Optery profile often helps. Keep in mind, we are constantly improving our platform, and we have a lot of things in the works to improve these results.” Link to full page here: https://www.optery.com/getting-started/ https://www.optery.com/getting-started/