See the private info data brokers are posting about you online (free) 🧐 People's jaws usually drop when they realize how exposed they are 😱 Upgrade and we’ll remove the profiles for you 🥷 We do NOT sell data and are NOT affiliated with any data broker ⛔️
Maker
Hi Product Hunters 👋
Makers here. We started building Optery with a vision for a safer world through data privacy and a strong conviction that a product needed to exist that protected people from the unwelcomed use of their private information by data companies. We are excited to share what we’ve been building and hope you’ll try it out as part of your online privacy defense toolset 🔨.
HOW DOES OPTERY WORK?
If you sign up (free), we show you where your information is being sold and exposed online at 150+ people search sites – things like your home address, cell phone, email, birthdate, family members’ names, estimations for income and net worth, ethnicity, religion, political affiliations, and past addresses. Our dashboard provides dynamically generated custom deep links you can click through to view your profile at most of these sites. If a link leads to a “Not Found” or 404 page, it means your profile was not immediately found. After you sign up, we produce a customized Exposure Report sent directly to your email with screenshots typically of ~40 – 60 sites posting your info.
People’s jaws usually drop when they realize how much of their personal information is openly posted by these sites on the public internet 😲. We then provide free and paid options to have your profiles removed from these sites.
We only support U.S. residents at this time.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
If you’ve ever Googled yourself and seen results from companies like InstantCheckmate, TruthFinder, Spokeo, ArrestFacts, InfoTracer, Intelius, CellRevealer, MyLife, WhitePages, FreePhoneTracer, etc – these are the types of sites we give you visibility into and remove you from.
These sites are used to find long lost friends, but they’re also used by identity thieves, hackers, spammers, phishers, doxers, swatters, stalkers, criminals and lawyers to act against you 🥷. If you care about your digital privacy protection posture, you can reduce your surface area for attack by removing your personal information from these sites.
WHAT ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?
- 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 do not share or disclose the private email address you use to sign up for Optery with data brokers. When submitting opt outs, we create private email addresses that we manage on your behalf.
- We do offer Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) / 2-Step Verification (2FA) for an additional layer of account security.
- We are continually expanding our list of covered data brokers, but we currently do not cover all data brokers in existence today.
- Some data brokers process opt out removals within 24 hours, but others take weeks or months to comply. We keep customers posted on progress with configurable alerts.
- There is a Catch-22 where in order to submit an opt out, you have to tell the data broker who you are. If you don't tell the data broker who you are, they have no way of knowing who they should remove. We only submit to data brokers the minimum amount of information necessary for them to locate the profile, and then remove it, which, in the majority of cases is: First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, City, and State.
- We only support U.S. residents at this time. Non-U.S. residents are welcome to sign up, and will be notified when their country is supported.
HOW CAN I LEARN MORE BEFORE SIGNING UP?
Introducing Optery Blog Post: https://www.optery.com/introduci...
Help Desk for FAQ and Support Requests: https://help.optery.com/
THANK YOU!
Thanks to our early users for keeping us on our toes with incredibly valuable feedback, and to you Product Hunters for checking us out today! 🙏
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Great product. I was surprised to see how much of my personal data was freely available online - and was subsequently removed by Optery!
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Maker
Hi @mattei999 - thank you for your support, we really appreciate it! What you described is one of the things that's really unique about Optery. If you’re interested in finding out where your profile is being posted and sold at the people search sites, there’s no better tool than Optery. For each user, we typically turn up 2X – 5X more profile match results than Google.
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In my working life, I've seen first hand just how pervasive personal data collection has become, and some of the ways that data is being used...and most people would never imagine WHAT data is being harvested about them or HOW their data is being sold and used. There are things we as individuals can do to stop this, but it's incredibly time-consumig and frustrating having to constantly deal with these data brokers and request they delete your data.
Optery is making this easy...it's something I'm recommending to my family members (who, let's be honest, would never bother to submit data deletion requests to all those brokers on their own). And I love that these folks are helping consumers reclaim some of their power in the data economy.
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Maker
Thanks @david_gleason - so true how time consuming and frustrating it is submitting opt outs across a meaningful number of data brokers. It's virtually impossible for a normal person to do. There are hundreds of data brokers to keep track of, each with a slightly different opt out procedure, and they are inconsistent in how long they honor opt outs, so ongoing monitoring and re-submissions are necessary. We felt there was a need for a software product that automated the opt out processes to make comprehensive removals possible.
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Optery provides such an important capability - to remove your personal data from data sets that are being sold for marketing and other purposes. Since California created a law (CCPA) that starts to give US residents similar rights to the data protection rights we see in Europe. People will be amazed at how much information is available about them and Optery is a great way to get the peace of mind that your info isn't out there being sold to anyone who wants it. This is as important a tool for online personal security as a password manager!
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Maker
Thanks @nealp - we are very encouraged that more and more U.S. states are passing privacy laws that give citizens the legal right to opt out such as California, Nevada, and Virginia. It's unbelievable that in the year 2021, the majority of U.S. citizens still do not have a legal right to opt out of data sales, and that most data brokers treat opt outs as if they are doing the consumer a favor or providing a gesture of goodwill or generosity to honor a removal request. I am optimistic we will get a privacy law at the federal level with a strong opt out right for all U.S. citizens soon.
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I’ve been working in the quant/systematic space at a hedge fund for ~12 years, so I know firsthand about the accelerating arms race among data aggregators to collect by often questionable means very sensitive and granular information. Optery solves this problem head-on. I’ve been impressed by how easy the product is to use, and how effective it’s been in removing my personal data from all over the web. I highly recommend it!
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Maker
Hi @marc_hubert - the problem you've pointed out is one of the main reasons we started Optery. As data has become more weaponized, data brokers have become more brazen in the liberties they take with our data, and the ends they’ll go to circumvent consumer preferences and even privacy laws. Fortunately, a lot of progress is being made. People are becoming more aware, stronger laws are getting passed, technology is being put to better use, and privacy tech is emerging as a more important category. Thank you for your support!
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Big fan of Optery! It makes it easy to remove your info from various people databases, and I've already noticed less spam (mail, phone calls, etc...) since I started using. Keep up the good work!
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Stocked to see privacy initiatives! Private data is very sensitive and we lost control over it. Tools like Optery are essential to regain control over our digital lives. Congrats on the launch!
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Maker
Thank you @pierre_kraus - we appreciate your support given your expertise in the privacy space!
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@gentilello Thanks man! I am far from being an expert in privacy but I'm trying to bring awareness about why we should care about our digital lives and offer a product that help people regaining control over their private data.
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