Incogni Review 2024: Erase Your Online Data

Sites like Incogni negotiate with data broker companies to remove your name from their databases. Legally, a data broker has to remove you once the request is made. Sometimes, however, they ignore the data removal request, which is why services like Incogni exist. 

But how does Incogni work to protect your online privacy and is it worth the cost? We'll dive into all the details in our Incogni review. 

4.0

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

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On Incogni's website

Incogni

50% discount on annual plan

• Limits public access to your information and protects your data from theft
• Sends removal requests on your behalf
• Tracks and repeats removal requests if needed
• No extra security features

Incogni review at a glance

Have you ever done an internet search for yourself to see what comes up? While old newspaper articles and pictures from high school might be fun to see, the amount of information about you online can be unnerving.

People search sites that list places you’ve lived, your phone number, birthday, and names of your relatives. All this feels like an invasion of privacy. Thankfully, Incogni can do something about it.

Incogni isn’t a fancy or frilly data removal service. It really only has one purpose, and that’s to hunt down and remove your data from more than 180 brokers across the internet. This includes removing your data from Google and a slew of sites you haven’t heard of before. But if you’re looking for in-depth reporting, credit or identity monitoring, or additional features, you’ve come to the wrong place. For those features, you should look to IDShield or Aura. 

Upon activation of our account, Incogni’s service quickly removed our data from nine sites. It went on to request data removal from over a hundred other people search sites.

A big plus to using Incogni is that the service lists all the websites it contacts. Whether you’re looking to opt out of the White Pages or remove your personal information from LexisNexis, you get a comprehensive breakdown of the data collection, including what the site indexes, what its claims are, and what its main goal is for your data. Most people don't think about this when surfing the web, and we appreciated learning all this information.

Incogni pros and cons

What data does Incogni protect?

Incogni doesn’t necessarily protect certain forms of sensitive data as much as it requests personal data removal from data broker sites. There are a variety of sites across the internet called data brokers that harvest all the publicly available information about you to sell.

Sometimes this information can be bundled with harvested data from trackers and cookies that watch what you do online. This data is sold as a package to marketers (or anyone willing to pay for it). Some of the types of data include:

• Name
• Birthday
• Gender
• Phone number
• Addresses (both current and former)
• Associated family members
• Family members’ ages
• Health information
• Financial information, such as your bank or credit card company
• Social Security number

Incogni subscription plan features

What personal data does Incogni remove?

Unlike some services that limit their scope to certain kinds of data brokers, Incogni broadens its horizon to encompass a variety of them. Whether it's risk mitigation, recruitment, people search sites, financial information, or marketing data brokers, Incogni diligently works to remove your personal information from all these realms.

Below is a more granular look at the types of data Incogni helps to erase from these brokers:

• Risk mitigation data: A variety of background, criminal, property, and other data that could potentially risk individuals or businesses
• Recruitment data: Personal information accessible by recruiters, which may include employment history, skills, and contacts
• People search data: Data available on people search sites, often including addresses, phone numbers, and other personal details
• Financial information: Financial data such as credit scores, loan information, or other financial standings
• Marketing data: Personal information like your browsing habits, past purchases, and interests used by marketing agencies to target individuals for advertising
• Health information: Personal health data may encompass medical history, insurance information, or other health-related details

How does Incogni work?

In the vast maze of online data brokers, finding and eradicating personal data could feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. This is where Incogni’s sophisticated algorithm comes into play.

Incogni pinpoints companies most likely to harbor your data by using its algorithm to scour the digital landscape, identifying potential data repositories with high accuracy. Once these companies are identified, Incogni steps into action, contacting them to initiate the opt-out process.

The backbone of Incogni's operation lies in its adept use of prevailing privacy laws. In the realm of the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides a solid legal footing for personal data removal. Across the Atlantic, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) serves a similar purpose in the United States. Meanwhile, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) bolsters Incogni’s data removal endeavors in the Canadian domain.

By leveraging these legal frameworks, Incogni doesn’t merely request but necessitates the removal of personal data from broker databases, making the opt-out process persuasive and authoritative.

Incogni prices and subscriptions

There are only two pricing options: you can either get billed annually or monthly. There are no levels of service. Everyone who signs up for the service receives the exact same thing.

If you decide to pay for an annual subscription, you’ll be charged $77.88 for the year ($6.49/mo), but you have 30 days to get a refund if you aren’t liking it. The monthly plan comes in at $12.98/mo and looks like it’s subject to the same 30-day money-back guarantee.

In our opinion, you don’t need to pay annually for services like this. We activate these subscriptions only two to three times a year to go in and clear our data from data broker sites, then we cancel the renewal. Since data removal is a constant back-and-forth, you can benefit from using services like Incogni, but it isn’t necessary to keep constantly active.

Incogni plans comparison

According to the website, Incogni is available to residents of the following:

• The U.S.
• Canada
• The U.K.
• Isle of Man
• Switzerland
• Norway
• Iceland
• Liechtenstein
• European Union member countries

Incogni vs. Surfshark One+

Bridging the gap between personal data removal and online privacy, Incogni has teamed up with Surfshark to offer a bundled service under the Surfshark One+ bundle. With Surfshark One+, you can scrub your sensitive data off the web and mask your IP address with a virtual private network (VPN).

Surfshark One+ also comes with additional features, which can be handy if you're in need of a cybersecurity suite. It includes the following:

• Surfshark VPN
• CleanWeb ad and tracker blocker
• 24/7 antivirus protection with Surfshark Antivirus
• Private search engine
• Email masking
• Data breach alerts

Our experience using Incogni

Incogni is a user-friendly privacy tool. When we signed up, we entered our email address and created a password. After completing payment, we were taken to the Incogni dashboard, where it had already confirmed we were not found on nine of the 180+ online databases it scans.

Incogni contacts data brokers without you having to do anything else, and it uses automation to scan each list of data brokers. Incogni let us know that the data removal process could take up to 48 hours while it scanned public databases for our data. Otherwise, there was nothing left for us to do but sit back and wait while it filed official data removal requests.

Getting started

Embarking on the journey to regain control over your personal information with Incogni requires a simple yet crucial step: signing an authorization form or providing a limited power of attorney. This legal foothold empowers Incogni to act on your behalf in communicating with data brokers, serving as your advocate in the quest for data privacy.

The term “limited power of attorney” might sound formidable, but it's a safeguard rather than a surrender of control in this context. It grants Incogni the jurisdiction to request data removal on your behalf, while its scope is meticulously confined to this purpose alone.

This arrangement is constructed with the utmost regard for safety and trust as Incogni retrieves and reclaims your digital identity. With this authorization, you are not just signing a document but embarking on a path toward enhanced digital privacy under the vigilant and professional stewardship of Incogni.

Dashboard and reports

Since the entire system is automated, there really isn’t anything for you to do once you’ve verified your information.

The dashboard shows you statistics on how many sites have received requests to delete your information and how many have completed that removal process. There are also some helpful FAQs listed.

There are no reports sent, but you have the ability to log in at any time and see the progress of your data removal inquiries.

Additional features

Incogni really doesn’t have additional features. The most advanced feature you’ll get is a detailed view of the data brokers being contacted. This is helpful because it lets you see exactly what they’re collecting and who they’re marketing you to on a regular basis.

Incogni also schedules follow-up removals since data brokers are always opening up, going out of business, and re-adding your info, even though you requested removal. Paying for a year of Incogni means the service sends out recurring requests to existing data brokers and new requests to data broker sites that just opened up. 

How do you know if Incogni works?

Apart from the green Completed tag beside each of the data brokers, you can go to the individual sites and search for yourself, to be sure the data was removed.

Since Incogni marked the ASL Marketing site as completed, we went and searched there. There was, in fact, no data about us on the entire site. We consider this successful.

Does Incogni keep your data safe?

Incogni doesn’t have a bad privacy policy actually. Yes, it shares your data, but that’s with the services it works with to provide you its services: “We do not sell your personal information. For example, we share it with our partners who help us deliver our Service.”

There’s even a line in the privacy policy about all data being completely deleted within 12 months of stopping service or when you request it (and the company is legally required to delete it). Also, your data isn’t shared unless legally required: “Finally, we may also share your personal information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.”

Remember, when we’re talking about the legality of sharing data, it’s likely this won’t affect the average person. It’s usually tied to investigations that are much larger than you trying to get your Grandma’s name and address taken off Google. In fact, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are two U.S. laws intended to protect your data.

Surfshark Incogni customer support

Support is more of a help-yourself situation with Incogni. There’s a vast library of questions you can search as well as commonly asked questions listed out for you.

If you do need additional assistance, there’s a submission form on the website that generates email support. Even in the submission form, the service will try to redirect you to a help page so you don’t have to wait for a response.

There’s no space within your dashboard or portal to cancel your Incogni subscription. If you want to do that, you will have to reach out to support@incogni.com and they'll get back to you in 24 hours. The site also mentions you can cancel at any time.

Incogni alternatives

While Incogni offers a comprehensive approach toward personal data removal, it's prudent to explore other avenues that may resonate more with your individual preferences or requirements.

There are several alternative data broker removal services, each with unique features that might cater to different needs. Below are some of the notable alternatives to Incogni:

• DeleteMe: Known for its user-friendly interface and exceptional customer service, DeleteMe assists in data removal and offers an annual subscription for continual monitoring and removal of newly emerged data.
  
  Get DeleteMe | Read Our DeleteMe Review
  
• HelloPrivacy: Tailored for the privacy-centric user, HelloPrivacy provides a thorough data scrubbing service coupled with a dashboard to track the progress of data removal efforts in real-time.
  
  Get HelloPrivacy | Read Our HelloPrivacy Review
• Aura: Aura stands out with its holistic approach to digital security, offering services encompassing data removal, identity theft protection, and credit monitoring, making it a one-stop shop for a broad spectrum of privacy and security needs.
  
  Get Aura | Read Our Aura Review

Incogni review FAQs

Bottom line: Is Incogni data removal legit?

Incogni has carved a niche in personal data removal services by offering a detailed, legally backed process to help individuals reclaim control over their digital identities. Its algorithm-driven approach and diligent follow-up on data removal requests underscore its legitimacy and effectiveness.

While the process might not be instant, the persistent endeavor of Incogni in navigating the convoluted world of data brokers to erase personal data is a testament to its commitment.

The service might resonate well with individuals overwhelmed with the enormous task of chasing down data brokers. With a legal framework bolstering its operations and a user-friendly interface, Incogni presents itself as a viable ally in the battle against unauthorized data dissemination.

For anyone keen on decluttering the digital space and shielding their personal information from the unrelenting grasp of data brokers, Incogni emerges as a worthy consideration.

4.0

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Incogni's website

Incogni

50% discount on annual plan

• Limits public access to your information and protects your data from theft
• Sends removal requests on your behalf
• Tracks and repeats removal requests if needed
• No extra security features

Author Details

Mary James

About the Author

Mary is a seasoned cybersecurity writer with over seven years of experience. With a B.S. in Liberal Arts from Clarion University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Point Park University, she educates audiences on scams, antivirus software, and more. Her passion lies in educating audiences on helpful ways to protect their data.

Ryan L. Clancy