Whether you're signing up or already have an account, you might be wondering why Optery asks for so much personal information. The short answer: we need enough details to find your profiles among millions of others, so we can remove them.

Optery's Minimum Account Creation Requirements

Most free online services only ask for an email address and password. To find and remove your profiles, Optery also needs:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Year of Birth
• Current City
• Current State

We also recommend adding optional details, such as:

• Middle Name
• Birthdate
• Current and Past Addresses
• Phone Number
• Names of Relatives and Housemates
• Alternative Names

Why Optery Needs this Information

We understand that sharing this information can feel uncomfortable, but without it, we can't deliver our service. These details help us find your profiles and tell you apart from other people with a similar name.

For example, if you only gave us your first name, there could be thousands or even millions of people with the same name. Even with your first and last name, there may still be hundreds or thousands of matches. Adding your year of birth, city, and state is what narrows it down to you.

Sometimes even that isn't enough, which is why we recommend adding optional details like your middle name, past addresses, and names of relatives and housemates.

"Why can't you just use my email address?"
We get this question a lot. In the future, we may offer a service based on email address alone, but for now we don't recommend it for two reasons:

1. Email alone provides a poor match rate at data brokers in aggregate which would not maximize your removals
2. We don't want to hand data brokers your email. Even when you submit an opt out, some data brokers add your email to their lists and sell it. We always want to avoid giving a data broker an email address they might not already have.

The Majority of Data Brokers Most Likely Already Have Your Information

Many people hesitate to share their details, or to use them for opt outs. But the truth is, most data brokers already have this information about you. The main exceptions are people who just turned 18 and haven't been picked up yet, or people who live completely offline and cash-only.

Data brokers often claim to have data on over 80% of U.S. adults. You might not appear on every site, but you're almost certainly on many of them. If they already have your information, it makes sense to ask them to stop selling and exposing it.

The best way to see what's out there about you is to sign up for a free Optery account and explore the profiles we find.

We are Fully Committed to the Security of Our Customers’ Data

To learn how we protect your information, read Optery's Statement on Data Security.

Updated on: 27/09/2026