A sizable part of our online experience today is, unfortunately, warding off spam emails, calls, and messages. These may seem harmless and only a nuisance at first but can lead to identify theft, financial fraud, and/or harassment for the unaware.
Advertisers and marketing companies are in constant need of our personal information so that they can target us with ads and generate an income, even if that comes at the cost of our privacy, and they're aided by data brokers who are the ones actually scraping all the data.
This is where data removal services like Incogni — developed by one of the best VPNs, Surfshark — come to our rescue. They automate the process of sending removal requests to data brokers and do regular re-runs to ensure they cover as many online platforms as possible, boosting your privacy with little to no effort and time from your end. Of the many data removal services available right now, in our hands-on Incogni review, it stood out because of its simplicity, effectiveness, and price.
What is Incogni?
Incogni is one of the best data removal services on the market right now. It automatically files removal requests on your behalf, helping you delete your private information from data brokers and people finder sites, who may otherwise sell your data to advertisers, marketing companies, and, in some cases, malicious actors, for a profit.
Likewise, with Icogni's custom removals, the service can help you take down personal info from general sites too. There's also the company's Exposure Scanner which automatically scans across the web looking for exposed data which it brings together in one place. Apart from a few legal exceptions like on social media sites and with government records, users can also submit links to any site that exposes their info. You can manually submit a link to have your personal info removed from a site or you can choose sites right from Incogni's Exposure Scanner results.
To fully understand the need for a data removal service such as Incogni, it's important to understand the risks associated with having your private data exposed. If cybercriminals get their hands on your personal data, for example via a data breach, it can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and doxxing, among other forms of cybercrime. Alternatively, personal info like your address, phone number and family connections are often just a quick search away and could be exposed as the result of a falling-out with a family member, an ex, or even an acquaintance. This too can escalate into stalking, harassment or doxxing.
With this being said, manually tracking down and requesting data brokers to delete your data is a time-consuming and complex process. Incogni, on the other hand, employs professionals with legal expertise and uses specialized tools to do the legwork for you. In short, Incogni helps you reduce your digital footprint and reclaim your digital privacy, all while saving you crucial time and effort.
Due to Incogni's links with Surfshark, it's included in the Surfshark One+ subscription – which also comes with a host of other cybersecurity tools, such as an antivirus, real-time data breach alerts, and ad blocking. However, you can also get Incogni as a separate service altogether.
How to use Incogni
One of the biggest positives of Incogni — other than that it's good value — is how simple it is to use. All you have to do is:
- Sign up for the service.
- Fill out a form with your contact information (e.g. your name, surname, email address, and home address).
- Sign the authorization form, which is how you give Incogni permission to deal with data brokers on your behalf.
Once you've completed this process, Incogni will then send all the removal requests automatically, and the service provides you with three ways to follow the progress. A dashboard gives you instant updates on the removal request for each broker, a progress report shows you a summary of Incogni's efforts once a month via email and there's also a privacy Risk Assessment in the form of a personalized report showing ongoing exposures and the risks tied to them which gets refreshed every 30 days.
Once Icogni's Exposure Scanner finds your personal info on the web, the Risk Assessment explains what it all means. It takes your real exposed data and translates it into an overall privacy risk level across three categories: physical, personal and scam. For each one, it shows what's exposed, where it was found, and why it matters. This way, you understand which exposures open the door to which threats, and what you can do about it.
Incogni's neatly organized dashboard lets you follow the progress of all of your ongoing and completed renewals. It shows a complete list of data brokers and sites that have been contacted along with the status of the removal: "Sent," "In progress," or "Completed." You may also get emails directly from some of the brokers, confirming that they’ve honored the data removal request.
The dashboard also scores the requests based on the types of information that the broker collects. So, you can have a request flagged as either low, medium, or high severity. How severe a request is comes down to the information the broker holds. The more sensitive and higher-risk the information is, the higher the rating (Low, Medium, or High). Incogni also uses two other metrics in its broker overview: a compliance score or how reliable a broker is at honoring removal requests and a status where each request currently stands.
Since we first tried Incogni, its dashboard has been overhauled with explanations built right into the interface. This lets you fully know what the service is doing behind-the-scenes. At the same time, nearly every stat shown in its dashboard has a tooltip that you can hover over or tap on the i icon to get a easy to understand explanation on what they mean. Likewise, the old "Activity log" has been replaced with "Notifications" and opening them gives you a full page of removal updates that you can drill into for more information.
Should you use Incogni?
Consider getting Incogni if you want to reduce your digital footprint and boost your privacy. For example, if you're worried about being findable online based on your exposed personal info, Icongin could be the right choice for you. Also, if you've already dealt with identity theft or fraud, you might want to consider Icogni Protect which pairs data removal with dark web and credit monitoring, real-time alerts, up to $1m in identity theft insurance, and recovery support (U.S. only)
There are, of course, alternatives out there. The likes of Optery, Kanary, DeleteMe, and Privacy Bee are all well-known and perform a similar job. DeleteMe offers considerably more brokers on its list, but if you're looking for a super simple and affordable experience, Incogni is the one to go for.
While Incogni doesn't offer the most amount of features or the most in-depth tracking of requests,
Icogni strikes the perfect balance between effectiveness, ease of use, and affordability. Speaking of price, Incogni is cheaper than the majority of its rivals, and its value for money, frankly put, skyrockets if you get it as part of a Surfshark One+ subscription.
