How do I report an exposed profile or removals issue that Optery has incorrectly marked "Removed / Not Found"?
For customers on a paid subscription plan, in the rare case you find an exposed profile that Optery has incorrectly marked "Removed / Not Found", please navigate to the Removals Issues screen and submit the URL, a screenshot and any additional information that would be helpful for us to investigate. (Free Basic users do not have access to this feature.)
Why does this happen?
Optery uses matching algorithms (similar to Google) to locate and mark your profile "Found" or "Not Found". Our matching algorithms are continually improving, but are not perfect (similar also to Google). Finding your profiles among the billions of other profiles data brokers are posting online is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Sometimes our scanning technology misses a profile one month, and then an improvement is made in our search technology's detection and matching algorithms, and then in a subsequent scan, a new profile is found that we had missed previously.
However, the most common cause of profiles being flagged incorrectly as "Found" or "Not Found", is when the person's name or identifying information at the data broker is listed with a slight variation. For example, sometimes the data broker has captured the person's age incorrectly, the middle name is omitted, or some part of the name is misspelled. Data brokers’ databases are not perfect, are changing constantly, and are primarily aggregated from third-party sources, so it is not uncommon for profiles at data brokers to have errors causing incorrect "Found" or "Not Found" classifications.
Another reason why a profile might be flagged incorrectly as "Found" or "Not Found", is when a person has moved at least once in the last 5 years. Many data broker databases are out-dated, and may have your profile listed in a different city than the city you used specified when signing up with Optery. Our matching algorithms are typically smart enough to take this into account, and search for you across different cities, but this does not work 100% of the time. This is why we recommend completely filling out your profile after you've signed up, as described on our Getting Started page.
There are many additional reasons why our matching algorithms might sometimes incorrectly flag you as "Found" or "Not Found", but we are continually trying to minimize this.
Why does this happen?
Optery uses matching algorithms (similar to Google) to locate and mark your profile "Found" or "Not Found". Our matching algorithms are continually improving, but are not perfect (similar also to Google). Finding your profiles among the billions of other profiles data brokers are posting online is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Sometimes our scanning technology misses a profile one month, and then an improvement is made in our search technology's detection and matching algorithms, and then in a subsequent scan, a new profile is found that we had missed previously.
However, the most common cause of profiles being flagged incorrectly as "Found" or "Not Found", is when the person's name or identifying information at the data broker is listed with a slight variation. For example, sometimes the data broker has captured the person's age incorrectly, the middle name is omitted, or some part of the name is misspelled. Data brokers’ databases are not perfect, are changing constantly, and are primarily aggregated from third-party sources, so it is not uncommon for profiles at data brokers to have errors causing incorrect "Found" or "Not Found" classifications.
Another reason why a profile might be flagged incorrectly as "Found" or "Not Found", is when a person has moved at least once in the last 5 years. Many data broker databases are out-dated, and may have your profile listed in a different city than the city you used specified when signing up with Optery. Our matching algorithms are typically smart enough to take this into account, and search for you across different cities, but this does not work 100% of the time. This is why we recommend completely filling out your profile after you've signed up, as described on our Getting Started page.
There are many additional reasons why our matching algorithms might sometimes incorrectly flag you as "Found" or "Not Found", but we are continually trying to minimize this.
Updated on: 28/09/2022
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