Online privacy has become a growing concern due to data breaches that can lead to identity theft. Too many apps and services store our private data – from email addresses to date of birth and even phone numbers. Worst of all, they sell this data to advertisers, who end up overwhelming us with spam.
One way to stop this is to personally contact data brokers with official data removal requests. However, this endeavor would be time-consuming to do manually. Enter services that made it their business to remove personal data from databases sold to third parties.
Today we will look at Incogni, review it, and analyze whether it really manages to remove all the data collected by brokers. Founded in early 2022 by Amsterdam-based VPN provider Surfshark, the data protection tool has already gained much traction in the cybersecurity community, so we were eager to try it out ourselves
Pros & Cons
Pricing Plans
Annual
Monthly
$69.4
$11.49
Features
Incogni is probably one of the least complicated pieces of cybersecurity software today. Its main purpose is to send data removal requests to advertisers and background checkers, ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
Data Removal
The data removal process starts the moment you subscribe to this service. Incogni contacts data brokers on your behalf, though not randomly.
How does Incogni work, then? The service has a database of companies that deal with sensitive data. Once a user has created an account, Incogni matches the type of information provided with each of the data brokers in its online database. If a particular data broker collects, say, zip codes, Incogni will add it to the list of tasks.
Immediately after it populates the list of data brokers that may potentially have your data, Incogni will request data removal from each of them. You can track the status of each data removal request on the dashboard, along with information about each company and how sensitive the data it collects is.
It’s important to note that the Incogni data removal process is completely hands-off. You don’t have to worry about providing additional personal data or getting involved in the process. That also means you won’t get to see the back-and-forth between Incogni’s team and data brokers or what exactly has been removed from each database.
Additionally, Incogni doesn’t guarantee that your data is really removed and whether the brokers end up re-using your data even after official removal requests have been approved.
Data Brokers
Speaking of data brokers Incogni features and is keeping tabs on, the current list is rather short and consists of just over 200 companies. That’s not an impressive number considering hundreds more companies collect data, not to mention leaks from various data breaches. Still, it’s better than many other data removal services.
Sign-Up Process
One of the biggest strengths of this tool is how simple it is to create an account. During the account registration, you’ll enter all the information the tool will use for sending the data removal requests, so you won’t need to enter data on any more forms afterward.
The data you can enter during the Incogni setup process:
- Email address
- Full name
- Home address
- City of residence
- Country of residence
- State/Province
- Zip code
The site also requires you to sign the power of attorney document. This is mandatory, as Incogni will act on your behalf, and if a data broker refuses an official request, it can force it to remove your data by contacting local data protection agencies.
Right after you sign up for Surfshark’s Incogni, you’ll be prompted to subscribe and choose one of the payment plans – either by using a credit/debit card or a PayPal account. Then, the tool will start handling data removal requests.
As for availability, customers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the European Union can sign up and use Incogni. The service isn’t available outside of these regions.
Dashboard
The dashboard serves as the main hub of information like the total number of requests sent, completed, and refused (if any). It’s very streamlined, so you can quickly get all the updates in one place. You can expand information about each case to learn more about it, and that’s pretty much it. Simplicity is the key at this data removal company.
Ease of Use
We have already talked about it, but it’s worth reiterating – Incogni’s user interface is the definition of simplicity. There’s basically no learning curve here, as there are just two screens on your dashboard, and everything is self-explanatory.
Working with Incogni requires no user involvement at all. Incogni will contact all the data brokers holding your data and will only notify you of data deleted or, in certain cases, that there was no data to delete.
The registration process is the only user-involved part of the experience. After that, you just need to sit back and wait for reports to come in, monitoring them in the detailed view of your dashboard.
Plans & Pricing
Incogni’s pricing model is very straightforward and fair. You can either pay on a monthly or annual basis, with no separate tiers or complicated plans to choose from. Everyone gets all the features and full service, no matter how they decide to pay for this tool.
The monthly subscription for Incogni is $11.49. Naturally, choosing to pay once per year has its perks. Most notably, you get a significantly lower price – $69.48 a year compared to $137 if you opted for the monthly Incogni subscription and stayed with the company for 12 months. That’s nearly a 50% discount.
Unfortunately, no free trial is available or any other way to test the service before making a purchase. Surfshark does have an occasional promotion, especially on Black Friday and other sale days, so at least there’s an option to try out this tool without spending too much money.
Refund Policy
Whichever of the two Incogni plans you choose to subscribe to, you can rest assured that your consumer rights will be protected.
Incogni has a money-back guarantee which any customer may claim if they’re not fully satisfied with the service provided. You’ll need to email customer support at support@incogni.com and claim your refund within 30 days of the purchase. The support team will try to resolve any issues you may have had with the service before ultimately refunding your purchase.
Beyond the 30-day window, a refund is possible under special circumstances, for example, if the service has encountered errors and you tried to contact customer support to resolve the problem.
Online Ratings
We were pretty satisfied with this service, if that weren’t already obvious. But what do the Incogni reviews on platforms like Trustpilot say?
At the time of writing, Incogni scored 4.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot, although the score was based on only a handful of reviews. Most five-star reviews praised the ease of use and how Incogni automated data removal requests. A majority of users have also reported that, after they started using this data removal tool, they received fewer spam messages.
The only downside, according to the users, is that you can’t unsubscribe through the Incogni dashboard, which is also our main complaint. After all, it’s still a new tool, so there are certainly some kinks that have to be ironed out.
We were glad to see Incogni involved in the cybersecurity community. Recently, the company published an online privacy report advising internet users about the potential dangers of browser extensions.
Pros & Cons
+ Fully automated data removal process
+ Streamlined dashboard
+ Fair and transparent pricing
+ Detailed information on data brokers
+ Available in the US, Canada, and most of Europe
+ Resolves data removals at an expedited rate
– Only one email per subscription
– Limited list of data brokers
Value for Money – The Final Verdict
Let’s quickly recap all of Incogni’s pros and cons. There are certainly many things that work and a few points that could be improved upon.
First and foremost, it really does work. Once it’s finished sending data removal requests, Incogni will show the real-time status of each request. Within just a few hours, we saw a few completed requests, and Incogni notified us of deleted data.
The UI is phenomenal and so easy to navigate around. Advanced users might find it a bit too streamlined, and the number of data brokers Incogni contacts isn’t particularly high. Still, for such a low price, especially with the annual plan, it’s a service that’s easy to recommend.