Why does Optery combine "Removed" and "Not Found" into one Removals Protection status?
Your Optery dashboard displays several Opt Out and Exposure Risk Statuses for each data broker such as Search in Process, Personal Info Found Exposed, Submitted, and Removed / Not Found.
We have combined the "Removed" and "Not Found" statuses into one status and sometimes customers ask us why we combine these two statuses.
Removing hundreds of thousands of profiles from data brokers is complicated work, and combining these two statuses dramatically simplifies reporting and tracking. In a perfect, simplified, and short term world, we would separate "Removed" and "Not Found" into two separate statuses. However, below are some examples of how this would cause challenges in the messy and complicated real world. For this reason, we combine "Removed" and "Not Found" into one status to keep things more simple and straight-forward.
Optery performs multiple different scans for customers to ensure we remove all instances of a customer's profile across different city, state and name variations. For example, let's say you've lived in five different cities in the past, and you have two different name variations (e.g. John and Johnathan or Kris and Kristine). For a single data broker, we might remove you from two different city and state and name combinations (e.g. John Smith in San Francisco, CA and Johnathan Smith in Los Angeles, CA), but then not find you with three other searches (e.g. John Smith in Chicago, IL and Johnathan Smith in Indianapolis, IN). In this case, for the same data broker, it is simultaneously true that you have been "Removed" and "Not Found".
Some customers are in such a great rush to get their profiles removed, they actually are submitting opt outs to data brokers at the same time we are. They want to get the personal information removed from the internet ASAP, and their rationale is that they will use both Optery and their own efforts simultaneously to hit the problem from different angles to get rid of the profiles ASAP. In this case, a profile might be found on the first scan, but then removed by the customer before we have a chance to submit the removal. In this case, Optery did not remove the profile, but it is no longer found.
Data brokers are constantly refreshing their databases and it is very common for Optery to remove a profile from a data broker, only for it to re-appear 6 - 9 months later. In this case, the profile was removed in the past, but is now found again.
To summarize, there are many "edge cases" where tracking "Removed" and "Not Found" as two separate statuses becomes incredibly complicated and impractical.
We have combined the "Removed" and "Not Found" statuses into one status and sometimes customers ask us why we combine these two statuses.
Removing hundreds of thousands of profiles from data brokers is complicated work, and combining these two statuses dramatically simplifies reporting and tracking. In a perfect, simplified, and short term world, we would separate "Removed" and "Not Found" into two separate statuses. However, below are some examples of how this would cause challenges in the messy and complicated real world. For this reason, we combine "Removed" and "Not Found" into one status to keep things more simple and straight-forward.
Optery performs multiple different scans for customers to ensure we remove all instances of a customer's profile across different city, state and name variations. For example, let's say you've lived in five different cities in the past, and you have two different name variations (e.g. John and Johnathan or Kris and Kristine). For a single data broker, we might remove you from two different city and state and name combinations (e.g. John Smith in San Francisco, CA and Johnathan Smith in Los Angeles, CA), but then not find you with three other searches (e.g. John Smith in Chicago, IL and Johnathan Smith in Indianapolis, IN). In this case, for the same data broker, it is simultaneously true that you have been "Removed" and "Not Found".
Some customers are in such a great rush to get their profiles removed, they actually are submitting opt outs to data brokers at the same time we are. They want to get the personal information removed from the internet ASAP, and their rationale is that they will use both Optery and their own efforts simultaneously to hit the problem from different angles to get rid of the profiles ASAP. In this case, a profile might be found on the first scan, but then removed by the customer before we have a chance to submit the removal. In this case, Optery did not remove the profile, but it is no longer found.
Data brokers are constantly refreshing their databases and it is very common for Optery to remove a profile from a data broker, only for it to re-appear 6 - 9 months later. In this case, the profile was removed in the past, but is now found again.
To summarize, there are many "edge cases" where tracking "Removed" and "Not Found" as two separate statuses becomes incredibly complicated and impractical.
Updated on: 13/06/2023
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