Whether you're going through our signup process, or you've already created an account, you may be asking yourself, "Why does Optery need so much of my information?"

Optery's Minimum Account Creation Requirements

While most free online services only require an email address and password, Optery also requires First Name, Last Name, Year of Birth, Current City, and Current State.

We have a number of other optional fields we recommend, such as Middle Name, Birthdate, Current and Past Addresses, Phone Number, the Names of Relatives and Housemates, and Alternative Names.

Why Optery Needs this Information

We realize providing all this information may be a little uncomfortable, but without it, we could not deliver our service. Providing the required information for creating your account helps us find your profile among the millions of others that are out there, and distinguish you from others who may share a similar name. Without this information, it's not feasible to locate your profiles and submit your removals

For example, let's say that you only wanted to provide us with your First Name. In that case, it would be impossible to find your profile, because there are probably hundreds, even thousands, or even millions of people with the same First Name. Even if you gave us your First and Last Name, there may be hundreds, or even thousands of other people out there with the same name. It really takes First Name, Last Name, Year of Birth, and Current City and State to narrow your profile down meaningfully among the millions of other people that are out there. Sometimes, even that is not enough, and that's why we recommend additional fields like your Middle Name, Current and Past Addresses, and the Names of Relatives and Housemates.

Some people ask, 'Why can't you just use my email address?' In the future, we may start providing a service based just on email address, but we don't like performing searches and removals in this way, because (a) email alone provides a poor match rate at data brokers in aggregate which would not maximize your removals and (b) we strongly recommend against providing your primary email address to data brokers at any time. Even if you provide it in the course of an opt out removal submission, they often add you to their lists and sell your email address. We always want to avoid potentially giving a data broker an email address that they might not already have, so this is why we don't like this approach.

The Majority of Data Brokers Most Likely Already Have Your Information

Many people starting to look at our service are hesitant to provide the personal details we require, or use them to opt out at data brokers. The problem with that thinking is that the vast majority of data brokers already have your information. There are some exceptions to this, for example, if you just turned 18 years old and the data brokers haven't found you yet, or if you live a completely disconnected, offline, and cash-based life.

Data brokers are very sophisticated and usually boast having over 80% of the adult population in the United States. You might be absent from some of them, but across all of them, you are almost certainly in their databases already. If they already have your information, we believe you might as well request they stop selling it and exposing it.

The best way to find out what's out there on you, is to sign up for a free Optery account, and start exploring the links to profiles where you may be exposed.

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

Please read Optery's Statement on Data Security to learn more about how we secure and protect our registered users' and paying customers' data.

Updated on: 10/11/2023