What does the "Link to Profile" column mean in the Dashboard?

The Link to Profile column in your Dashboard shows whether Optery has a public-facing URL for a profile found during a scan. It tells you three things at a glance: whether a profile was found, whether we can link directly to it, and whether a linked profile has since been removed.

Clicking through the View links in this column is the first thing a new user should do after creating an account. Along with your first Exposure Report, it's the fastest way to see how many data brokers are exposing your information online.

The three states

View: A scan found a profile and Optery has a supported URL template for that data broker. Clicking View opens the public page where your information was found.
Removed: A profile that previously showed View has since been successfully removed. The label switches from View to Removed once that happens.
Empty: No link shows at all. This happens when the data broker doesn't support a direct public profile link, or Optery doesn't have a View URL template for that site. Because no link was ever available, neither View nor Removed will ever appear for that entry, even if the broker-level status shows Removed or Not Found.

Link to Profile column vs. removal status

The Link to Profile column and your data broker level removal status (Removed, Not Found, Removals In Progress, Removals Pending) are related but not the same thing.
The column tells you whether a clickable link exists and what happened to it. The status tells you where that broker sits in the removal process.
A data broker can show a status of Removed while its Link to Profile column is empty, if that broker never had a supported View link to begin with.

See Why don't the "How Exposed Are You" and "Protection Progress & Status" numbers match? for more on how these different Dashboard elements relate to each other.

What to expect from View links

Results vary by person. People with unique names typically see clean, single-match results. People with common names often see other people who share their name instead. Right after signup, expect roughly half your View links to show your profile and half to come back empty or as someone else, since your first scan is still catching up. After a few months as an active customer, most View links should turn up empty or show other people, since we've already removed your profile from those brokers by then.

For the full breakdown of what different outcomes mean and why, see What if a "View" link leads to an empty or not found page?

FAQ

• Why is the Link to Profile column empty when my status shows Removed?

The column only shows View or Removed for brokers where Optery has a direct link template. If that data broker was never linkable, the column stays empty regardless of removal status.

• Why does one broker show View and another show Empty, even though we found you at both?

It depends on whether Optery has a supported URL template for that specific broker, not whether you were found there.

Updated on: 15/09/2026