After upgrading, how long does it take for my profiles to be removed?
Unfortunately, removing you from hundreds of data brokers does not happen instantaneously, or even overnight.
Some data brokers process removals within 24 hours, but others take several weeks, or even months to comply. After upgrading, Optery starts its automated opt out processing and within about 1 week you'll start to see many of the profiles disappear and for the new statuses to be updated in your dashboard.
In our experience, customers typically see that more than half of their exposed profiles are removed or not found within 30 days. However, it can take up to 3 - 4 months of effort for the long tail to disappear.
The answer to this question also varies heavily depending on the data broker. For example, The California Consumer Privacy Act, also known as the CCPA - the most strict privacy law in the U.S. - actually gives data brokers a 45 day grace period to comply with an opt out request. The majority of data brokers honor opt out requests on the first try, but others require retries or follow ups over several weeks.
Even after your profile has been removed from a data broker, Google and Bing can take additional time to remove listings from their search results cache. You can learn more about how to prevent this from this article on our Help Desk here.
Also, some data brokers honor opt outs indefinitely, but others require annual effort to ensure your name and personal info stays removed. The CCPA permits data brokers to stop honoring an opt out request after 1 year, and even after opting out, many data brokers display a message apologizing in advance and admit sometimes their opt out records are over-written accidentally causing data to reappear.
Another factor is when you have multiple names or can be found in multiple cities and states. It can take successive opt out runs over several weeks to clear all the profiles.
This is why we recommend keeping your account at Optery active on an ongoing basis. Not only does Optery continually expand its list of covered data brokers for all plans, but it is are also continually re-scanning for profiles even after they've been removed, and re-submitting opt outs on an ongoing basis when new results turn up.
Another factor to consider is the fact that some data brokers, who we refer to as Dishonorable Data Brokers, sometimes will not remove a profile even after a valid opt out request is submitted, or have broken or non-functioning opt out pages. We prefer not to give Dishonorable Data Brokers a free pass (as many of our competitors do), and continue to pursue multiple channels to have our customers' profiles removed from these data brokers. Through persistence and filing complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and State Attorney Generals offices, in many cases, we have been successful in removing profiles for our customers, but it often takes months of time and effort.
It's a bit of a whack a mole game, but Optery has the most advanced opt out technology in the world enabling us to win the game by constantly re-scanning and re-submitting opt outs automatically whenever they pop back up.
Paid plan users will start seeing updated removals status on the Removals in Progress and Removals Completed tabs of your Dashboard, as well as receiving Removals Progress Updates by email. Removals Progress Updates default to delivery monthly, but are completely configurable from the Notification Preferences section of your Account settings (e.g. weekly, monthly, or none).
Some data brokers process removals within 24 hours, but others take several weeks, or even months to comply. After upgrading, Optery starts its automated opt out processing and within about 1 week you'll start to see many of the profiles disappear and for the new statuses to be updated in your dashboard.
In our experience, customers typically see that more than half of their exposed profiles are removed or not found within 30 days. However, it can take up to 3 - 4 months of effort for the long tail to disappear.
The answer to this question also varies heavily depending on the data broker. For example, The California Consumer Privacy Act, also known as the CCPA - the most strict privacy law in the U.S. - actually gives data brokers a 45 day grace period to comply with an opt out request. The majority of data brokers honor opt out requests on the first try, but others require retries or follow ups over several weeks.
Even after your profile has been removed from a data broker, Google and Bing can take additional time to remove listings from their search results cache. You can learn more about how to prevent this from this article on our Help Desk here.
Also, some data brokers honor opt outs indefinitely, but others require annual effort to ensure your name and personal info stays removed. The CCPA permits data brokers to stop honoring an opt out request after 1 year, and even after opting out, many data brokers display a message apologizing in advance and admit sometimes their opt out records are over-written accidentally causing data to reappear.
Another factor is when you have multiple names or can be found in multiple cities and states. It can take successive opt out runs over several weeks to clear all the profiles.
This is why we recommend keeping your account at Optery active on an ongoing basis. Not only does Optery continually expand its list of covered data brokers for all plans, but it is are also continually re-scanning for profiles even after they've been removed, and re-submitting opt outs on an ongoing basis when new results turn up.
Another factor to consider is the fact that some data brokers, who we refer to as Dishonorable Data Brokers, sometimes will not remove a profile even after a valid opt out request is submitted, or have broken or non-functioning opt out pages. We prefer not to give Dishonorable Data Brokers a free pass (as many of our competitors do), and continue to pursue multiple channels to have our customers' profiles removed from these data brokers. Through persistence and filing complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and State Attorney Generals offices, in many cases, we have been successful in removing profiles for our customers, but it often takes months of time and effort.
It's a bit of a whack a mole game, but Optery has the most advanced opt out technology in the world enabling us to win the game by constantly re-scanning and re-submitting opt outs automatically whenever they pop back up.
Paid plan users will start seeing updated removals status on the Removals in Progress and Removals Completed tabs of your Dashboard, as well as receiving Removals Progress Updates by email. Removals Progress Updates default to delivery monthly, but are completely configurable from the Notification Preferences section of your Account settings (e.g. weekly, monthly, or none).
Updated on: 14/02/2023
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