Incogni review 2024: remove personal information from the internet
Protecting online privacy has become a paramount concern in today’s interconnected world. The internet is a minefield of personal information, vulnerable to data brokers and their lucrative trade. Enter Incogni, developed by Surfshark, a rising star in the realm of digital privacy solutions. This data privacy tool removes your personal data from multiple brokers, saving you time and effort.
Instead of having to write emails inquiring about your information removal to each data-harvesting company, following-up, and dealing with all the time-consuming nuances, Incogni does it all for you. All you have to do is turn on the app and let it do the magic efficiently, fast, and thoroughly. Basically, you just lean back and watch your data leave the grip of greedy data brokers.
This article provides a comprehensive Incogni review, exploring its features, functionality, and effectiveness in delivering safeguarded browsing and heightened data protection. We dive headlong into the core features of the Incogni app to determine whether the service is worth its salt.
Spoiler alert: Incogni is definitely worth your dime and time. Read onward to see what the service brings to the personalized online security table.
Incogni overview
💵Starting price: | $6.49/month |
🆓Free version or trial: | No |
💳Money-back guarantee: | 30 days |
🔢Number of data: | 180+ |
🖥️Device compatibility: | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Firefox, Chrome |
🌎Supported countries: | United States, United Kingdom, Canada, EU (including Switzerland) |
📆Data removal process duration: | 30-45 days |
💡Power of Attorney: | Yes |
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Incogni pricing
How much does Incogni cost? Let’s start by noting that Incogni stands out from other services by embracing simplicity. Rather than overwhelming users with multiple plan options, Incogni offers a streamlined approach with just one plan.
- $12.99/month for the monthly plan
- $6.49/month for the annual plan
Incogni offers users two payment options for its plan. The month-to-month plan is priced at $12.99 per month.
Alternatively, users can choose the annual plan, which requires payment for the entire year at a cost of $77.88. This works out to a more affordable $6.49 per month, providing a substantial savings of 50% compared to the monthly plan. Opting for the annual plan allows users to commit to a year of service while enjoying a more budget-friendly pricing structure.
If the service doesn’t suit your needs, Incogni has got you covered. It offers a trusted 30-day money-back guarantee, during which you can apply for a refund should you change your mind.
How to remove your data from the internet with Incogni?
Using the Incogni app is a walk in the park. All you have to do is set up an account, subscribe to the service, and from thereon, it takes a couple of toggles to navigate the app.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to remove personal information from the internet:
- Head to Incogni homepage. Create a new account or log into an existing one if you have it
- Subscribe to the service by choosing annual or monthly plan
- Sign the Power of Attorney document. This grants Incogni the right to send official data removal requests in your name
- Indicate which person’s information you want removed
- Head to ‘Detailed view’ section to see specific information about suspected data brokers, main information about them, and the current status of your data
- Grant Incogni the right to contact data brokers on your behalf
- Watch how Incogni deals with data brokers and protects your data from any mining
How does Incogni work?
With Incogni, you gain control over your privacy with a simple click. The service enforces existing data privacy laws, flushes away your personal information, and shields you from spam emails, telemarketing calls, targeted ads, and potential misuse by scammers or identity thieves. You can practically say goodbye to the hassle of contacting companies individually – Incogni does the heavy lifting on your behalf.
Incogni operates by proactively protecting users’ personal information from data brokers. For this reason, you must be patient, as the process could take a while. In the meantime, step one is compiling a comprehensive list of data brokers that are likely to possess customers’ sensitive data, including details such as:
- Social Security numbers
- Physical addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
This valuable information can be exploited for various purposes, from marketing and recruitment to financial and health-related activities. Furthermore, it can expose individuals to potential scams and phishing attempts.
Once the list of potential data brokers is established, Incogni initiates removal requests to delete the users’ personal data from these brokers’ databases. However, we noted that Incogni’s efforts continue beyond there. Recognizing that data brokers often re-collect personal information over time, Incogni sends recurring data removal requests to ensure ongoing protection for its users.
Kudos to Incogni for providing a user-friendly dashboard to keep users informed and engaged throughout the process. This dashboard allowed us to monitor and track key milestones, including identifying potential databases containing their information. Moreover, we could check the status of data removal requests that have been sent and the completion of those requests.
The statuses marking the situation of your data can be several:
- [Not started]. This status indicates that the data removal process is yet to begin
- [In Progress]. As the name suggests, data removal has begun and is underway
- [Completed]. You’ll see this status if the suspected company reported that the information has been removed or was never held in the first place
- [Rejected]. This one brings bad news. It means the data broker denied the request to delete the data. Once the data broker blatantly refuses to process the request, Incognito doesn’t give up. It dutifully continues contacting the broker to ensure your data is removed. If all else fails, the app will reach out to data protection agencies to understand why they refuse and whether their decision can still be influenced
While dealing with data brokers is somewhat complex and quite gross-scale, the navigation is super simple on the user end. Only a few available sections with a clear menu and options that typically take just a few clicks. Ultimately, Incogni did wonders for sensitive data preservation without unnecessarily confusing folks in the meantime.
Is Incogni safe?
When it comes to the safety and security of your private data, Incogni prioritizes utmost protection and takes privacy seriously. Incogni ensures that your information remains confidential and collects only the most necessary bits of it. So, is Incogni legit? Overall, we found that the software emits exemplary respect for customer data.
To maintain the highest standards of data privacy, Incogni strictly adheres to the guidelines established by prominent data privacy laws such as:
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
- Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
These regulations serve as a framework for safeguarding personal data and give individuals greater control over how their information is collected, used, and stored. Those laws apply in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe, which cover the regions where Icnogni is available. So, huge kudos to Incogni.
Conversely, Incogni is a product developed by Surfshark’s team, which further fortify our trust in the software that user data is respected. Some companies that deal with data removal are confirmed to be collecting user data themselves, which beats the whole point. Surfshark is among the best no-logs VPNs, whose policy was audited independently by third parties like Cure53 and Deloitte. This, in turn, cements Incogni’s reliability and credibility as data-respecting software to a dependable degree.
Besides, you can grab a fantastic Surfshark One+ deal, which includes Incogni, VPN, Antivirus and other Surfshark extras! Be sure to check it out if you want to enjoy benefits like geo-block circumvention for access to exclusive content, 24/7 protection, and more.
Now, let’s go back to our main star – Incogni. Naturally, the software does collect some data about you that’s essential for data removal processes:
- Account information: your email address & password
- Personal information: your full name, date of birth & address
- Device information: analytics about Incogni usage & marketing cookies
However, note that the app may request further information from you in dealings with data brokers. So, don’t be surprised; it’s a natural part of the process. In reality, Incogni requires considerably less information than its competitors, some of which request users to provide government-issued IDs.
Moreover, Incogni doesn’t sell your data to third parties, so you can rest assured that it won’t float around the internet without your knowledge. Abiding by these regulations, Incogni demonstrates its commitment to protecting user privacy and upholding the legal requirements for data security. Basically, you can rest assured that having your data removed from brokers won’t cost you the very same data on any other front with Incogni.
Is Incogni worth it?
So far, our Incogni review proves that Incogni is definitely worth using. First of all, Incogni does what it promises: data removal from companies in possession of your information. Though the process can be slow, it takes time to communicate with companies, send them requests, and act accordingly in their response.
Now you may wonder, why should I pay for Incogni when I could contact these companies myself? Well, unless you have all the time in the world to deal with all the data brokers out there, who are challenging to get in touch with most of the time, then perhaps you can. On the other hand, it could be a miss-or-hit affair that could take years to finalize with just one data broker.
As a matter of fact, though you may be aware of all the online corners where you left your information, in reality many more companies could have a hold of it. Shady advertisers tend to buy user data even from dark webs, so data brokers definitely fall into this category of potential sellers. That way, you may not be aware of the full scale of your digital footprint circling the waters of the internet.
Instead, Incogni does it for you much more efficiently while you can resume your life not worrying about data sabotaging. The service skips all the hoops and loops and gets straight to the business of data removal. Conclusively, the app is as effective as it gets. It’s a perfect tool for exercising your right to privacy and minimizing your web presence to virtually zero.
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Is your data being collected: data brokers basics
Yes, your data is likely being collected most of the time. After all, the internet has become a crisis zone of data hunting, which is the currency of the modern age. However, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s begin by illuminating the whole idea of a data broker. In a nutshell, a data broker is usually a company that collects and sells your data to third parties dabbling in marketing and advertising.
They don’t need your consent to harvest your data. In fact, they collect it as you browse the web, scroll social media, or make online purchases. This is what data they can collect about you:
- Contact information
- Medical records
- Financial records
- Credit card information
- Criminal records
- Marital status
- Social Security Number (SSN)
- Employment history
- Education
These data brokers harvest your information through web cookies, which allow them to observe user interactions, preferences, and behaviors. They’re legally allowed to crawl through the web gathering all this information about you since it falls under the umbrella of targeted marketing and personalized advertising.
Now, the total number of data brokers on a global scale is estimated to be over 4,000. It’s physically impossible to contact every single one of the companies and see the data removal through to finalization. And what if they refuse? At the moment, brokers legally have from 30 to 45 days to respond. Worse yet, some of them use the whole time to wear requesters off and make them give up. It’s been estimated that dealing with one data broker on your own could potentially take a few dozen decades even.
Unfortunately, businesses invest in data to gain competitive advantages and improve customer experiences. Therefore, driving the demand and profitability of data collection is probably not going away anytime soon or ever, really.
You should be alert about your data being collected for numerous reasons. For one, personal data can influence loan denials, inflated insurance prices. You could even experience discriminatory practices based on your financial or medical history. Thus, reducing your digital presence and footprint is crucial if you value your privacy and want to prevent the worst-case scenario: your data ending up in the hands of criminals.
Currently, Incogni reviews 180+ data brokers. Though it may not be much compared to the total number of data-mining companies, its database harbors the biggest players in this business. Plus, the service promises to expand this number soon. Even with the present coverage of data brokers, the Incogni app already saves years’ worth of data removal processes on your behalf.
8 ways to ensure your online privacy
Apart from opting for data removal applications like Incogni, you can take the reins of data protection into your own hands. Here are some of the ways you can prevent data brokers from mining your information:
- Don’t give out your information easily. Be mindful when sharing personal information with unknown sources requesting it (websites, emails, etc.)
- Be critical and suspicious about sharing. Critically evaluate whether a piece of information is necessary in a specific case, e.g., home address for an online newsletter
- Accept as few web cookies as possible. Aim to agree with the lowest possible amount of tracking when offered preferences in Cookie request prompts
- Use a reliable VPN. The technology effectively hides your IP address while browsing the web, concealing your activities from any prying eyes
- Create complex passwords. Strong passwords with various characters add an extra layer of protection. Additionally, a password manager can help create and safely store passwords
- Browse with caution. While browsing the web, keep away from unknown or untrustworthy sites (the best indications to watch out for is no SSL or Lock icon next to the URL)
- Befriend Incognito mode. Browsing in Incognito mode removes browsing history after each session, reducing your digital footprint. Besides, you can also opt for privacy-friendly browsers
- Delete unused social media. Unused social media accounts can always get hacked, so it’s always best to delete them beforehand
Conclusion: should you get Incogni?
Yes, you should get Incogni. After thoroughly investigating this Incogni review, we determine it’s a great service for taking your information back from data brokers. It may seem like it’s not worth the effort or money because everyone steals your data nowadays, but it’s simply not true. Data leaks can cause detrimental damage to your reputation if leaked. Or worse yet, your data falling into the wrong hands could compromise your safety.
However, is Incogni worth it for real in the realm of data-removing services? We can finally answer that yes, it’s definitely worth the cash. Reaching out to every data broker out there is tedious and lengthy business. Incogni is a solution that removes your personal information from such companies fairly quickly and efficiently.
Incogni is a rising star in full-spectrum personal data removal, which doesn’t break the bank either. We found that its one-plan model for everything works magic, and the annual subscription option is, in fact, cheaper than its monthly counterpart.
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Besides, if you have any questions or find something not up to your liking, you can always reach out to their customer service. While you can only contact them via email, their customer support is available 24/7. They answered some of our inquiries with genuine care and expertise.
Ultimately, Incogni is an exemplary service for those who are protective of their digital footprint and want to shake off pesky data brokers. Its linear and sleek design makes navigation super easy and clear right off the bat. More so, Incogni’s compatible with all major devices, though available only in the US, UK, Canada, EU, and Switzerland.
Incogni is the best investment for effective data removal on your behalf with just a few clicks. The service solidifies your online presence and protects you from unpleasant surprises in the future regarding sensitive information about you.
You may also like to read:
NordVPN review
Surfshark VPN review
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FAQ
Does Incogni really work?
Yes, Incogni really works. Our meticulous Incogni review reveals that the service works perfectly well within its scope of 180 data brokers. The app sends out recurring data removal requests to companies that harvest user information for personalized marketing and advertising campaigns.
What data does Incogni remove?
Incogni sends requests for companies to remove your personal information. Such institutions collect user data via analytics and cookies for personalized advertising experiences. However, such information can also result in reputational damage if leaked or used for nefarious purposes in the worst cases.
How much does Incogni cost?
Incogni offers a one-model plan: $6.49/month for an annual payment and $12.99/month as a monthly subscription. There are no tiers or additional features of extra charge.
What is Incogni?
Incogni is a data removal service. In brief, it sends requests to data brokers and companies that may hold your information to remove said information. The main advantage is that you don't need to do anything while Incogni deals with data brokers efficiently and much faster than you'd do manually.