Protect Your Personal Data with Optery

We’re all used to the internet being used for commerce, the to-and-fro of digital orders, invoices, payment details and delivery updates is as much part of our lives as all the other things that fill our inboxes. However, there is more going on behind the scenes.

The trade in personal information online is huge. A report by McKinsey put an estimated figure of over $300 billion on the global personal data market in 2020, and it’s likely to have seen significant growth since. Key to this marketplace are data brokers, or information product companies, which silently gather information on people from the traces they leave online, analyse and organize it, then sell it on to other companies that use it for targeted marketing, among other things. This hidden industry is vast and largely unregulated, so it’s easy for everyday consumers' personal information (home addresses, links to family members, even phone numbers) to end up for sale.

Online stealth mode

Saving your personal data from being traded by these data brokers is where Optery comes in. While remaining completely invisible online is an unachievable task, it is possible to remove the information these brokers hold on you, though it’s a complex, difficult and time-consuming process with no guarantee of success. And even if you manage to successfully opt-out of one broker’s database, it’s likely your data will pop back up again, having been sold on before your opt-out was received or re-collected, meaning the process will need to be repeated. There are state-specific laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, that can assist you, but without help you’re on your own.

Optery takes a proactive approach to your data security. It scans hundreds of data broker and "people search" websites to locate your private data, then automates the process of submitting opt-out requests, reducing spam, phishing, and other security risks while enhancing your online privacy through patented AI-powered technology. It does the hard work for you, becoming a trusted partner that can potentially save you hundreds of hours of work, and alongside automatically submitting opt-out requests, it can solve CAPTCHA puzzles and click verification links to remove your profile. Once the process has run its course, Optery provides detailed reporting confirming that your information has been removed.

Using Optery to remove your details from the data harvested by these brokers brings with it several advantages. Data brokers hold vast amounts of personal information that is highly attractive to cybercriminals, increasing the risk of data breaches as they use it to launch attacks on the services you rely on. Identity thieves can use it to forge documents, guess passwords or the answers to secret questions, and gain access to your accounts. The proliferation of personal data across search sites is making the problem worse, as AI crawlers duplicate the data from site to site, making complete, permanent removal almost impossible, and dealing with it becomes an ongoing process that Optery is built to deal with.

Take action against spam

By removing your data in this way, you take steps toward reducing the amount of unsolicited calls, texts, emails, and junk mail that you receive from scammers. The detailed, intrusive profiles data brokers compile on internet users can be used against them in multiple ways, such as the exposure of their personal details - a process known as doxxing - or even to enable stalking behaviour. The kind of personal data held by brokers can also be used in an attempt to influence opinions and behaviour, targeting you with political advertising every time you go online.

The data removal tools offered by Optery can remove your home address from Google, help prevent identity theft and fraud, clamp down on the sale of your address and phone number without your permission, and strengthen your digital privacy protections. Limiting the amount of personal information that’s available online helps reduce your susceptibility to attack, and once your data is in the wrong hands, it may not be possible to retrieve it.

Optery is a comprehensive and effective personal information removal service, covering a massive number of data brokers and people search sites, and ranked the number one most effective in a recent study by Consumer Reports. It has two US patents for its search technology, which includes a blend of AI and machine learning to fill out forms, respond to emails, and even deliver legal demands on your behalf. It can continuously monitor data brokers for your personal data, removing it wherever it may pop up, and making a process that’s been made deliberately obscure and frustrating much more palatable.

Optery offers a free basic account that scans hundreds of data brokers, and provides a detailed report with screenshots, showing exactly where your data is currently exposed. Optery’s ongoing subscription model means it’s constantly working for you to protect your time as well as your privacy by removing personal data every time it reappears. You can check out how it works by looking at the Optery getting started page, find out about pricing, or sign straight up here.