Which data does Optery require, and what makes them better?

Ex: photo ID, SSN, all past addresses, online handles, family member details

Do they keep these forever? So many companies eventually get hacked.

Just trying it out.

Required seems to be,

First name, last name, country, state, city.

You can add more info if needed. Don't see anything about ID, SSN.

You can add other addresses. You can add extra family members. These aren't required but I'm sure it would help from what I've seen on other websites.

Thanks, sounds better. Thoughts on the monthly payment approach? I.e. could you sign up for just 1 month each year or so?

I gave them money for a month. Seeing how well it is. That's what I want to find out. Maybe rotate my wife and I between them...

Thinking about it, the brokers might be the best companies with deleting data.

"If I don't have previous data on you requesting deletion, I won't know next time I encounter your data so I'll just re-add it."

Let's see how well it pans out. But for now, they found 120 matches in different levels. They generated a report based with screenshots and links.

Paid for ultimate. They have already removed some of them.

Adding,

You can upload an ID for the sites that require it. They suggest what data to mask out.

You can give them a limited power of attorney (revocable with just a click) to act on your behalf.

>There's no way you can delete your information from all of them without subscribing to a service to do it for you.

There is no way you can delete your information from all of them [period].

My personal recommendations to lessen data-associations:

1) Actually use cash

2) Shop at places which don't require membership (e.g. for discounts)

3) Buy a domain name which allows you to `catch-all@your.domain` and then give each requestor a unique-to-them "email address" e.g. WalMart @ JoeSmith2222333.com

4) Don't carry your cell phone with you everywhere; Don't sleep with your phone

5) Remove/unplug/disable voice assistants

6) Run LLMs/ChatGPT on local instances

7) Have your DHCP auto-issue an IP to your own local DNS server (e.g: PiHole)

4) Don't carry your cell phone with you everywhere; Don't sleep with your phone

There are benefits to doing this that are beyond just privacy.

I have carried my cell phone outside of my house a total of three times the past two years (mostly for parental death, out of town).

When people ask "how do people reach you" my typical response is "a select few people know where I live or have my landline [full-stop]."

Being unreachable is a lifestyle, not a part of most's journey.

uBlock + NoScript would also be good additions for desktop browsers. I'm impressed I can browse most of the web fine without scripts, or at most, with scripts hosted from the same domain.

May also try switching to Fastmail this year.

uBlock is definitely an easier implementation for most users. But running Pi-Hole [1] on a RaspberryPi3b [2] is "training wheels EZ," effectively a single SD format with minimal initial configuration (assign IP, credentials), that can then run entirely headless (until the SD card fails... use the best memory you can afford).

Perks of local DNS-resolver include it working across all devices accessing the local network, including outside of the browser. It is ASTONISHING how many connections modern OS'es attempt, by the millesecond.

[1] Pi-hole.net

[2] raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus/ [3]

[3] ...or better. Runs just-fine on this one!

Last time I tried pihole YouTube was completely broken. I'd love to use it but haven't had time in the past to research fixing these issues.

Does this work for commercial data brokers? E.g will it stop the steady stream of phone calls from recruiters?