Incogni review: easy way to remove your data from the Internet

The internet is littered with your personal information that’s collected via online cookies and other methods. This data can then be used for sending spam emails, telemarketing calls, and targeted ads. Therefore, you might be interested in removing this information entirely.

You can request this data to be removed all by yourself. However, that requires loads of time and effort since you’d have to contact hundreds of data brokers separately, many of which won’t even comply at first. Fortunately, Surfshark has recognized the issue and developed Incogni, a data privacy tool that requests your data removal from numerous brokers on your behalf.

Incogni ensures your privacy and saves time by dealing with companies that collect your data and demand its removal. Simply put, your personal information gets flushed, and existing data privacy laws are enforced without you having to contact anyone. This article showcases how Incogni works, how to use it, and whether it’s the right data removal tool for you.

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Incogni pros and cons

What type of data can Incogni remove?

Incogni ensures there’s absolutely no data online that can be traced back to you. As such, it contacts various data brokers specializing in creating your shadow profiles. Such organizations can have access to your:

• Full name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Home address (or an approximate location)
• Online accounts
• Browsing history
• Employment details
• Financial records
• Travel records
• Health information
• Various preferences (products, entertainment, politics, religion, etc)
• Recent purchases
• And much more

Once this data is removed, it will become practically impossible for data brokers to find any suitable data about you for selling. Moreover, Incogni will guarantee that advertising companies don’t create new shadow profiles about you again.

Setting up Incogni

The Incogni setup process is incredibly simple:

1. Sign up with an email address
2. Sign the authorization form so Incogni can identify which records belong to you
3. You’ll be redirected to the main Dashboard when you fill in all the necessary details. It will show all the information regarding the number of requests Incogni has sent out, how many are in progress, and how many are completed. In rare cases, you’ll be required to take additional action.
4. The simple interface allows you to easily find the Detailed view menu, showing more details about the data brokers with your information.
5. That’s it, your online presence will now be taken care of by Incogni!

How does Incogni work?

Incogni asks for minimal amount of your personal data so that the agents can conduct data removal requests. It holds a consistently-increasing backlog of some of the world’s biggest data brokers and sends removal requests to the companies that are likely to have your information. Recently, Incogni also started removing data from around 66 people's search sites in the US.

So, how does it know where your information might be? In the registration process, the platform collects some of the key details about you (such as full name, phone number, email, birth date, and location). So, the algorithm may not send out requests, if, for example, a certain data broker doesn’t collect information about the people in your area.

Incogni agents search the internet for your personal data and use GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA privacy laws to enforce data brokers to delete your information. Only when the Incogni agents receive a written confirmation do they mark your request as completed.

You can find the statuses of your request and whether they have been completed by going to the “Detailed view” section on the Incogni page to see the data broker responses.

The information about your data will be marked as follows:

• “Completed”, if the company reported that the information has been removed or was never held.
• “In Progress”, if the process is underway.
• “Rejected”, if the data broker refused to delete the data. Once the data broker explicitly denies processing the request, Incogni continues contacting to ensure your data is removed. If needed, data protection agencies are contacted in order to understand what is the reason for refusal and if possible find ways to change their decision.
• “Not started”, if the data removal process has not started.

Incogni also gives a general description of what data each broker collects and where it is used: I’ve found several companies collecting my name, phone, address, employment history, credit data, and more for financial, insurance, recruitment, or advertising purposes.

The sensitivity of data collected by these brokers is measured in colored categories. According to Incogni, the higher ratings are quite rare and would constitute sensitive information such as Social Security numbers or credit card information. So all in all, it's useful to have an overall view and data sensitivity score on each of the requests, as it helps to have a visual idea of your data being used online.

Getting data removed with Incogni

A very easy signup process and a very simple dashboard hide a pretty elaborate data removal process – which was as simple as it gets. Incogni will send such emails to the brokers, including your main information, asking for all traces of data connected to it to be removed.

As per the rights, data brokers are given a window of time to respond – so, this process won’t be instantaneous. After a couple of weeks, 8 data brokers have already deleted all of my data, as notified by my Incogni dashboard.

I haven’t received any emails from data brokers trying to bypass Incogni’s measures or asking me to complete additional actions. Everything from Incogni’s end was completely sorted out.

However, Incogni points out that there might be cases where a data broken might try and reach you directly. If the recipients of your email include [email protected], you don’t need to do anything, and if not – just forward the letter to them and let them take care of the rest for you.

All in all, removing my data with Surfshark Incogni was a quick and easy process.

Why should you remove your data from the internet?

There are a few main reasons why you’d want to remove your data from the internet. The first is improving your online privacy by removing personally identifiable information collected without your consent. This has the added benefit of preventing data collection companies from profiting from your data.

Another reason is to reduce cybersecurity risks. After all, cybercriminals can use this information about you to craft elaborate scams to trick you. This can be a minor nuisance at best or a severe cybersecurity issue with dire consequences at worst.

We recommend using our personal data leak checker to see how much of your information is already out there. It will make it clear that tools like Incogni are vital nowadays.

Surfshark Incogni pricing

Incogni offers two plans: Individual and Family & Friends. While the Individual plan only allows 1 user, with the Family & Friends plan, you can add up to 4 emails and numbers.

You can sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription. The Incogni Individual plan costs $7.49/month on a 1-year plan or $14.98/month on a monthly plan. The Family & Friends plan is available for $16.49/month on a 1-year plan or $32.98/month on a monthly plan. These prices are lower than those of most similar privacy assurance services.

However, the situation gets even better knowing that there's another exclusive option – you can get a Surfshark One+ bundle starting from $3.99/month and have an all-in-one cyber security solution. The Surfshark One bundle includes Incogni, a robust antivirus, a market-leading VPN, an ad blocker, and even more security tools.

You may be wondering: which option to choose? And why would you even need to choose a yearly subscription?

Indeed, it makes a lot of sense to simply sign up for a month or two of Incogni, get your personal data removed, and ride off into the sunset. However, there’s one thing to consider.

Our data collection is constant and consistent. In time, your information might, and probably will, make its way to databases of new data brokers, meaning that the process of removing your data will have to begin from the start once more. Additionally, Incogni will also include new companies in its database for an even wider personal data search. If you really want your information to get wiped out, you need to do consistent checks and keep on enforcing your rights as an individual.

And if you have questions about the Surfshark One+ bundle, the answer is pretty similar – after a month of use, cyber threats don't just run away. In fact, with the technology improving, cybercriminals are keeping up with that too. Hence, an all-around protection suite is rather necessary these days.

Get all-encompassing protection with Surfshark One+

Grab the Surfshark One+ package to get 100% security against all online dangers. The cost-effective bundle includes a powerful VPN, an effective antivirus, a private search engine, real-time data breach alerts, and much more.

cybernews® score

4.7 /5

• Security against all cyber threats
• Affordable and effective
• 30-day money-back guarantee

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Is Incogni worth getting?

Incogni is a very simple tool to use – and your experiences with it will vary, depending on the expectations. I like to see it as your personal assistant, giving leverage against massive data broker companies.

In addition, Incogni keeps improving with time. Recently it has launched a feature dedicated to American users – an option to be de-listed from “people search.”

While there's always room for improvement, Incogni is an excellent, simple tool for making sure your data isn’t sold to the highest bidder.

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