When a district attorney’s office became responsible for providing privacy protection services for its deputy district attorneys, the team did not simply renew the incumbent service and move on. Instead, it took the opportunity to evaluate the market and determine which provider would best meet its needs.
That review led the office to Optery.
The need was clear. Prosecutors handle cases involving individuals who may have a strong interest in locating, contacting, or targeting them outside of work. Reducing the online exposure of deputy district attorneys and their families was therefore a critical safety issue.
The office reviewed several personal data removal services, including Optery, while also considering the incumbent provider. The goal was to make the best decision for the organization and its people while also accounting for practical implementation needs such as ease of administration, adoption, and single sign-on.
Why the office began looking for a better solution
The client who led the evaluation would not normally expect to oversee an implementation like this. But when the office became responsible for evaluating privacy protection options for those being covered, she found herself tasked with reviewing the available services.
A different privacy service had previously been in place. Rather than automatically continuing with that vendor, the office decided to take a closer look at what else was available.
The goal was to find a solution that would better protect prosecutors, reduce administrative friction, and make participation easier for those being covered.
Why personal data removal was needed
For the office, the core use case was straightforward: protect prosecutors from being located or contacted outside of their professional roles.
Deputy district attorneys prosecute individuals who may have a reason to seek them out beyond the courtroom. When personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, and other identifying details is exposed online through data broker and people-search sites, that creates clear safety concerns.
The office wanted to reduce that risk before a problem arose.
As the client explained, prosecutors early in their careers may not always feel personally concerned about this kind of exposure. But as they take on more serious matters, the risk becomes harder to ignore:
“Frequently with prosecutors, when they’re just starting out and handling misdemeanors, they think, it’s no big deal, people don’t care who I am. But by the time they get to prosecuting more serious matters and they’ve dealt with someone they really don’t want to be contacted by, we don’t want to be reactive. We want to be proactive.”
Why Optery stood out
Optery distinguished itself in several important ways during the evaluation.
First, its coverage was more comprehensive than the other services under consideration. The office found that the number of data brokers covered through Optery’s Ultimate plan was significantly broader than what it saw from the alternatives.
Second, Optery aligned well with the office’s implementation requirements. The team wanted single sign-on to reduce administrative lift and make the service easier for members to access. Optery worked closely with the office to make that process simple.
Third, Optery proved highly responsive throughout procurement, go-live, and the early post-launch period.
In the client’s words:
“Optery has been incredibly responsive to our needs as an agency during the procurement phase of this implementation, go live, and post go live.”
Implementation that drove stronger adoption
The office’s prior vendor had seen only moderate adoption, in part because members had to independently sign up. That created friction and limited participation.
With Optery, however, the office was able to implement single sign-on so members could more easily receive invitations and activate their protection. Optery also supported the office’s internal communications and training efforts, including Lunch and Learn sessions that helped explain the service and why ongoing participation matters.
According to the client, “Optery has worked closely with me to ensure that our single sign on process is seamless and my internal customers have all questions answered.”
She also emphasized the strength of Optery’s onboarding support:
“They have gone above and beyond what I would expect with any implementation in terms of onboarding and staff training for us too – which has been incredibly helpful with adoption.”
The client also pointed to usability as another advantage. “The member portal is very transparent, very easy to use,” she said. She added that Optery was “really easy to work with” and that “the service is good and thorough.”
The impact showed up quickly:
“As a matter of fact, the adoption rate within the first month has surpassed the adoption rate we had with our prior vendor who we worked with for several years.”
Broader removals and early results
The office also saw early indications that Optery was delivering stronger removal performance than its prior service.
The client said that one long-serving Deputy District Attorney (DDA) in the office was immediately struck by how much more data was being removed compared with the previous vendor, and how much faster the process appeared to move. As she recalled, “I worked very closely with the union president in our office, who has been here for a very long time, and they were like, wow, the number of data broker sites I’ve been pulled off of with Optery is significantly higher than with the prior service, and it seems to be a much faster process, which is really great.”
That matched the feedback the client had already shared by email:
“The data removal with Optery appears to be significantly more efficient – more data brokers in a very short period when compared to our prior vendor.”
For an organization seeking to reduce the exposure of prosecutors, that kind of effectiveness is critical.
Extending protection to family members
The office did not stop with employees alone. It also wanted protection extended to family members under Optery’s Ultimate package.
That reflects a practical understanding of how exposed personal data can be used. Family members and close associates can also be leveraged to locate, profile, or pressure a target, so protecting only the employee can leave security gaps.
Because family members were not part of the office’s internal identity system, implementation required a thoughtful approach. The client said Optery worked closely with the office to create the right invitation paths and make the setup manageable for both employees and covered family members. As she explained, “Optery was great in terms of working with us about how to generate the appropriate invitation and have one hosted site for a single sign-on that didn’t require credential sharing and one that does for the family members.”
The Optery Advantage
By choosing Optery, the office gained broader coverage, faster removals, and a more responsive, supportive implementation experience than it had with its previous provider. The strong adoption rate reflected those advantages and helped extend protection more effectively across the office and covered family members.
For this district attorney’s office, Optery proved to be the best choice for proactively reducing the risks created by exposed personal data. As the client put it, “I truly cannot say enough good things about Optery as a service provider.”