The Minnesota shooting suspect, Vance Boelter reportedly used data broker and people search sites to gather personal information in preparation for his attacks. As reported by WIRED, “according to an FBI affidavit, police searched the SUV believed to be the suspect’s and found notebooks that included handwritten lists of ‘more than 45 Minnesota state andContinue reading "Suspect in Minnesota Shootings Used Data Broker Sites to Find Targets"

In May 2025, Meltwater sent unsolicited emails to a small portion of Optery customers who had enabled Expanded Reach and Use for Removals, using email addresses Optery provided solely for opt-out processing. We believe this violated Optery’s clear instructions. Upon learning of the incident, Optery immediately halted opt out submissions to Meltwater. We’re committed to protecting our users' privacy and security, strengthening controls, and continued leadership in data removal effectiveness.

We felt the Consumer Reports study was well intentioned, but poorly designed, misleading in its conclusions, and ultimately the source of misinformation as major news outlets picked up the story and amplified its flawed conclusions across the internet. Despite the poor design, the results of the study ranked Optery the #1 most effective of all services tested, outperforming DeleteMe, Reputation Defender, EasyOptOuts, Kanary, and all others tested.