Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

What a nifty startup. I love the idea of using software to make it more difficult to sell my personal information. I'm not sure why I care enough to pay, but after reading this post, I do, and I signed up. (I'm awaiting my report and will probably upgrade after reading it.)

View on HN

But this seems to be neither software nor does it actually make it more difficult to sell data. Its a servive that sends opt out requests for you. As far as I can see there is no legal value to this, nor is this sustainable - the next scrape and you're back in. There is (obviously) no guarantee that you data won't be sold, nor any guarantee that their opt out requests don't become basically a signal for 'this is a real person with money to spare'.

The teeth come from the laws, though. If you've submitted an opt-out request in compliance with the law, and your data reappears, the vendor now has a problem with the government. Problems with the government are super bad for your business. They have many more resources than the average individual.

I think that these laws don't have much effect when you require individuals to fill out (literally) 200 forms once a year. But software is great at filling out 200 forms once a year. It's the "missing link" for this kind of law; turning the legislature's intent into a regulation that means something.

I rarely see things that are really exciting to me on HN and that I can immediately start using. For whatever reason, this piqued my interest.

I certainly as the reasoning but still this is fundamentally a problem that should not exist.

Here's where the service would be actually powerful: if it sends you proof if a broker added you within the 12 month period and tells you where to file a case against the broker.

This sounds like an interesting add-on to explore.

Optery is opt out software. It uses a custom search technology to locate profiles being exposed and sold by data brokers online. It then automates the submissions and communications necessary to execute opt out requests to have the information removed. It monitors (re-scans), and re-submits and manages opt out requests as necessary on an ongoing basis when new profiles pop back up again. Optery is continually adding support for more and more data brokers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com