Incogni Personal Information Deletion Service Review: Don’t Touch My Data!

Personal information is a resource in the world of digital marketing, advertising, and product research. This resource is collected, traded and stored. Most of the time, you don’t have to say who ends up with your personal information. Incognito makes sure you do.

Do you know who has your email, contacts and other personal information? I’m willing to bet they’re more data brokers than you think. It was only after using Incogni that I realized how many websites had my sensitive information stored: keep your personal information private.

What does the incognito do?

Incogni is a “Personal Information Removal Service,” which means it scans the web for databases that are likely to store your sensitive information and contacts the brokers behind them to remove it.

In the words of Incogni from What is Incogni? support page, “Incogni contacts the data brokers on your behalf and requests the deletion of any of your personal data they hold.” The service’s algorithm analyzes more than 180 brokers and determines which of them require deletion of personal data.

In short, Incogni puts your personal data out of the reach of those who shouldn’t have it.

How does the incognito work?

So Incogni removes your personal data from brokers’ databases, but how do you do it? According to Incogni’s support page on the subject, “[Incogni] uses an algorithm that predicts the probability that a particular data broker will have your data.”

The service’s algorithm analyzes its list of intermediaries to predict which ones may have your personal data. Incogni then sends an email to each broker with their name, physical address, and email address so they can verify that your personal data is stored in their records.

If this made you win, I could say the same. In an effort to remove personal data, Incogni sends an email with some of my… personal data attached? Can’t the broker just keep the data in that email now? However, when you dig into why Incogni does this, you understand a bit more.

From the moment Incogni requests the deletion of your sensitive data, that broker can no longer store it. “Privacy laws such as EU and UK GDPR, CCPA and PIPEDA prohibit data brokers from retaining and using data provided in data removal requests for any purpose other than the application processing. This means that the data received by them can only be used for identification purposes.

Therefore, as soon as brokers receive Incogni’s notice, they are highly incentivized to delete their personal data or risk paying hefty fines for violating privacy laws.

However, Incognito is more than a one-time data selection tool. It also provides valuable month-to-month maintenance; The more you buy, sell, and interact with others on the Internet, the more your information will be collected and stored. With a monthly Incogni subscription, you can stay on top of where your data ends up.

How to use incognito mode

Incognito is easy to use. The hardest part of the process is registering; once you create your account, sit back and let Incogni do its thing.

boards

The Dashboard tab is simple but effective. The top row shows how many requests Incogni has sent to brokers who have your information on file, how many of those requests have not yet been resolved, and the number of brokers who have since removed your personal data from their servers.

As soon as you sign up, these numbers should rapidly increase and continue to show up for the next week or so (depending on how much of your data is accessible to brokers).

Below the top row is a pie chart with two halves: In Progress and Completed. This is a repeat of the same information shown in the top row, but it gives you a quick visual representation of how much Incogni has already cleaned.

To the right of the pie chart is a small tips section. These links to articles that answer frequently asked questions like “What do I do if I get an email from a data broker?”

I appreciate the simple layout of the Incogni dashboard – after all, any app that deals with your personal information needs to be transparent and easy to navigate, although I think it even could be. also simplistic. I’d like to see a little more verbatim information, like a short list (five items or so) of the most recent kills completed, or maybe some tips on how to keep my data out of the hands of notorious brokers.

detailed view

The Detail View tab is significantly more complicated. This is where you can see a breakdown of which databases contain or have ever held your information, how sensitive that information is (up to a maximum of 10), and the current status of each Incogni request (either In Progress or Completed). ).

Under “Broker Type” at the top of the page is a small menu that allows you to switch between public and private databases. Different companies and brokers will fill in depending on what they do with your personal information. Public databases display your contact details and background information to their users (a background search website or “people search site”), while private databases are more interested in selling your personal data. discreetly for marketing and advertising purposes.

Just below the broker type menu is a row of search modifiers: “Category” sorts the list items by their industry (“Marketing”, “Financial”, “Recruiting” and “Risk Mitigation”), “Sensitivity Data Status” is a range of the importance of the stored data from one to 10, and “Data Status” sorts the list based on the progress of the request.

Going down to the list itself, you’ll find a little arrow icon next to each broker. By clicking on any company in the list, you will get more details about what kind of personal data it has stored (such as “Contacts” and “Career”), and any other relevant information Incogni has about it.

It’s worth noting that within weeks of signing up for Incogni, 75 data removal requests were completed, but 72 are still in progress. Incogni mentions that some data brokers like to take their time, but are required to respond within 30-45 days of formal notification. 100% of my data from public databases, many of which have the highest data sensitivity rating due to their deeply personal nature, was deleted within two weeks. Some private databases, on the other hand, still have information like my contacts, race status, and demographics in their system.

I can only hope that these private databases do their part of the requirement under Incogni’s legal notice, but for now, they will continue to trade and sell my information.

Aid

Finally, the Help tab takes you to Incogni’s support page, where you can find more information about anything you need help with (or find where to contact someone if the answer isn’t on the site).

There are some particularly informative tabs scattered throughout the tabs, offering information on questions like “What are data brokers?”, “Do they remove my data from the dark web?” and “How do you know if a data broker has my personal data?”

If you just want your personal data out of places it shouldn’t be, you won’t need this tab. But if you’re interested in learning more about the process and what exactly happens to your sensitive information, this is where you’ll find the resources.

Should you subscribe to Incognito?

If you take your personal data seriously, and you should, Incogni is a great tool for identifying which brokers have your information and getting them to remove it from their databases.

I took note of just a few pain points while using the service, mainly related to the email that Incogni sends to businesses as notices. The notification itself contains sensitive information, although Incogni assures you that it cannot legally remain in a broker’s database after the notification is provided. Still, it’s hard to imagine my full name, physical address, and email address being sent to hundreds of brokers who may or may not have my details.

Email notice also opens the door for brokers to contact you directly via email, something that happened to me several times after entering my information into Incogni. This email usually comes with a link to “confirm” the deletion of your data, which is really just another extra hoop for you to jump through before your data is back in their hands. However, Incogni does have a support page dedicated to what you should do if you receive an email from a data broker.

Looking beyond those two minor drawbacks, Incogni provides an essential service in today’s world of trading and selling data. You can subscribe today for $12.99/month or $77.88/year, and you can cancel at any time.