Security and privacy decision
Optery
A capable developer can build a narrow self-hosted workflow for scanning a subset of sites and automated opt-outs, but Optery’s patented search technology, SOC 2 certification, broad site coverage, and human-assisted removal workflows are durable advantages that make a full replacement impractical for a single builder.
Visit website↗No open-source build does this yet
Nothing published replaces this one, so a replacement starts from an empty file. Here is what it would have to cover.
What a replacement has to do
- Automated discovery of profiles on people-search/data-broker sites and submission of opt-out/removal requests with progress tracking and periodic re-scans.
What it still won’t have
- coverage breadth of 635+ sites and ongoing additions
- patented search and automated opt-out technology
- SOC 2 Type II certification and associated controls
- assigned human Privacy Agents and “Humans + Machines” workflows
- built-in screenshot verification and removal reports
What remains hard
- Proprietary models
Optery has two United States Patents for search technology enabling us to find and remove more customer profiles than any other company.
- Compliance and regulation
Optery completed its AICPA SOC 2, Type II security certification by Prescient Assurance.
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 40 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal self-hosted data-removal service using Node.js (Express), Postgres, Puppeteer, Redis for scheduling, and a small React dashboard. Core features in scope: 1) run a Google/Bing-based profile discovery job that records candidate profiles and captures screenshots; 2) store variants (names, past cities, emails, phones) in Postgres and deduplicate; 3) automated opt-out form submission with Puppeteer including sending verification emails via SMTP and integration with a captcha-solving provider; 4) scheduled monthly rescans and a dashboard showing before/after screenshots and removal status; 5) a REST API endpoint to export CSV of removal history and a webhook for status changes. Out of scope: building proprietary patented search heuristics, SOC 2 compliance, and extensive site-coverage catalog. Include retries, error handling, logging, and automated tests for discovery, submission, and rescan flows.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Pay verdict base20
- 3 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Hard moats found in the evidence-6
- Evidence score24
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time — so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 3
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productOptery — official product page
- official pricingOptery Pricing
- official productOptery Product Updates
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
