Incogni vs Deleteme
You may have heard the phrase "privacy is dead," but it's not too late to start protecting yourself. Your personal information is valuable, and it's being mined for profit by data brokers like White Pages.
This may sound like something out of a dystopian sci-fi movie, but it's happening right now, and it's not a joke. So, let's get serious about protecting your online privacy.
What is a Data Broker?
Let's start with a joke. Why did the data broker cross the road? They didn’t! They already have the cross streets to your house, and the person crossing the road is your online stalker about to knock on your DOOR.
But seriously, data brokers are a real problem, and they're making money off of your personal information without your knowledge or consent. How do they do it? By collecting information about you from various sources, such as your social media profiles, public records, and online purchases, and then selling that information to advertisers and other third parties.
What kind of information are we talking about? Your name, address, phone number, email address, age, gender, education, employment history, financial information, and more. It's a treasure trove of data that can be used to target you with ads, scams, and even identity theft. And the worst part is, you may not even realize it's happening.
do i need a data broker removal tool?
But why is protecting your privacy so important? For starters, it's a matter of security. Your personal information can be used to steal your identity, open credit cards in your name, or even access your bank accounts. By protecting your privacy online, you're safeguarding yourself against these types of attacks.
And let's not forget about the creepy factor. When you realize that companies are collecting and selling your personal information, it's easy to feel violated. It's like someone is following you around and taking notes on your every move.
Online creeps and stalkers can even find your IRL info and harass you, or worst case, endanger you.
What is Incogni?
Incogni is a new data removal service made in 2022 that works for you to remove your data from hundreds of online websites that store and sell your data, in a lot of cases, for FREE. Incogni is owned by the same company that owns the popular VPN service, Surfshark.
What is Deleteme?
Deleteme is owned by a company called Abine, and it was made in 2011. It’s also a data removal service, and it does the same things as Incogni.
Does Incogni Really Work?
Incogni promises to remove information from around 130 data brokers.
From my reports, they have removed 90 out of 130 results from data brokers.
Does DeleteMe Work?
Deleteme claims to remove information from around 580+ Data brokers from the internet. From my reports they have seemingly listed around 42 results but reviewed some 1900 records.
It’s not exactly clear how many sites were searched from the PDF they sent me.
Which is more affordable, Incogni or Deleteme?
There are now a few services like this, and I’m honestly surprised there hasn’t been more by this time. Data brokers and the information they provide make it very easy to be harassed online.
Perhaps its the fact that more and more of us are becoming creators online, or publicly facing, or maybe its the fact we finally care.
Whatever the case is, several companies have are going after this target market and we see that in the forms of the biggest competitors being DeleteMe and Incogni, and probably a few others—but those are the biggest and the ones I’ve checked out.
Price - Winner: Incogni
In terms of price, they are all pretty similar ranging from around $13 a month, to around $80 a year to $100. In terms of the yearly price, Incogni is the cheapest at $78, while Deleteme is the most expensive at $129.
Sites Removed - Winner : Incogni?
In terms of this section, it’s really the most important. The site that removes the most information from the most data brokers is obviously the winner right? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, and unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to tell who is really the best by pure numbers alone.
From pure numbers alone, it seems like Incogni has a capability to remove information from around 140 websites, Dataseal from around 70 website, and Deleteme from around claimed 580+ websites or so…?
Deleteme has a HUGE list on their site, but from my report, it said they scanned around 133 websites to have my information removed around 2021 (which is when I had my report made). Then at the beginning of 2022, they claimed to have reviewed 1900 records, but only around 42 or so websites (I counted the websites monitored in the PDF report).
So what is it? 580, 1900, or 42? I’m not sure.
That said, Incogni says it has made around 90 requests which seems to be the most easy for me to understand, especially since the website has a list of every record removed, from where, and what that website is (very nice GUI).
Deleteme seemingly has the most transparent list of websites—listed at 580, but it could be inflated—while Incogni does a great job of listing the websites in the panel—and which are successful, it’s not as transparent about listing them before you sign up for their service. Deleteme works more through PDFs sending you reports.
I think more of the data broker removal tools need to make it more clear how many exact websites host your information, how many have been removed, and be VERY clear about that.
It’s too easy for these services to over market their service by just adding a shit ton of websites that might not even host your information. That is why I put “?” for this category.
Because while Deleteme seemingly has the biggest list on their website, I cannot confirm they removed my name from some 600+ websites or something, and Incogni seemingly only removed around 90 records out of 133 so far.
incogni vs deleteme - who wins?
So who is the winner here? Well, Incogni ($78 a year) is certainly cheaper per year giving you around a $50 discount when compared to Deleteme’s more expensive model of $130 a year.
In terms of site’s removed, it’s clearest to me that Incogni has removed information from 90 websites, where Deleteme seems to have removed somewhere of 40+ websites, but scanned anywhere from 1300 records to a claimed 500+ websites on their site.
Overall, I think Incogni is the winner. It’s cheaper, and the layout on the website makes it easier to understand what data is getting removed, when it is, and from what websites. It also seems to have removed more information about me online.
