Auto-identity-remove
Security and privacy
data broker opt-out
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
4 positive, 21 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 16 critical, out of 44 comments about the project. Thread score -0.27.
Idea: 4 for, 6 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 6 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Good idea that people wish existed as open source
From 1 comment
Sweet, I've been wondering why it doesn't doesn't exist as an open source solution.
victorbjorklund on HN
Objections
Doesn't work well outside the US or with non-US addresses
From 2 comments
I tried this (as a Canadian): ``` 1. It asks you to optionally sign up for a bunch of other services like Spokeo 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I…
pards on HN> Name, city, state, ZIP, email, phone Does this work for anyone outside the US as well? e.g. Will it work for an Australian?
guidedlight on HN
Many sites require manual steps, accounts or confirmation
From 2 comments
I tried this (as a Canadian): ``` 1. It asks you to optionally sign up for a bunch of other services like Spokeo 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I…
pards on HNHow many of the forms have captchas etc? How many require you to make an account or confirm your email address/phone?
londons_explore on HN
Submitting personal data to hundreds of brokers may increase exposure
From 2 comments
I'm wondering if this isn't a nice automated way to send your information to 500 data brokers.
amelius on HNWow, you will be giving away a shitload of PIID when using this tool, the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do.
ur-whale on HN
Unclear trust in the unknown author and third-party API
From 1 comment
I like the idea. But I stopped reading when I saw that I have to pay for an API, because it looks like advertising for it in npm package form. Then I read HN, took a look at the…
exiguus on HN
Requests
Support for non-US sites and addresses
From 2 comments
> Name, city, state, ZIP, email, phone Does this work for anyone outside the US as well? e.g. Will it work for an Australian?
guidedlight on HNcool idea, happy to try it out > Searches each data broker site for your name + state Is this US only or would it also work for international profiles (and if so what would be…
7777777phil on HN
Dry-run audit mode before submitting data
From 1 comment
The state tracking and manual fallback are the most interesting parts to me. For a tool like this, I’d really want a dry-run/audit mode that shows which fields would be submitted…
Waffle2180 on HN
Linux or Docker support
From 2 comments
Any chance of this not needing to run on a Mac? I would try it out but want to run it in a Docker container.
IgorPartola on HNThe only thing that is tied to MacOS is launchd, seems like that's useful info to add to the docs. I don't know if you can just do a run from the CLI. Supporting Systemd should…
ramon156 on HN
Questions
Does it work outside the US, such as Canada, UK or Australia?
From 3 comments
I tried this (as a Canadian): ``` 1. It asks you to optionally sign up for a bunch of other services like Spokeo 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I…
pards on HN> Name, city, state, ZIP, email, phone Does this work for anyone outside the US as well? e.g. Will it work for an Australian?
guidedlight on HNIs this relevant for the UK? (Genuine question, trying to understand if I should run this)
namanaggarwal on HN
Is it a command line tool and what info does it need?
From 1 comment
Nice ! Is it a command line tool ? What info does it need to operate ?
ramshorst on HN
Alternatives named
Optery
From 1 comment
I use Optery for about two months a year, seems to do a good enough job for most of the data brokers. There are also discounts or promo codes to lower the price as well.…
SamuelAdams on HN
Big Ass Data Broker Opt Out List
From 1 comment
Having done data broker opt-outs manually using the Big Ass Data Broker Opt Out List (https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List), very little of the process…
3RTB297 on HN