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The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
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Limits public access to your information and protects your data from theft
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Sends removal requests on your behalf
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Tracks and repeats removal requests if needed
All About Cookies is an independent, advertising-supported website. Some of the offers that appear on this site are from third-party advertisers from which All About Cookies receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear).
All About Cookies does not include all financial or credit offers that might be available to consumers nor do we include all companies or all available products. Information is accurate as of the publishing date and has not been provided or endorsed by the advertiser.
The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
- All About Cookies makes money when you click the links on our site to some of the products and offers that we mention. These partnerships do not influence our opinions or recommendations. Read more about how we make money.
- Partners are not able to review or request changes to our content except for compliance reasons.
- We aim to make sure everything on our site is up-to-date and accurate as of the publishing date, but we cannot guarantee we haven't missed something. It's your responsibility to double-check all information before making any decision. If you spot something that looks wrong, please let us know.
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 or re-list you after initial removal, 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.
What data does Incogni protect?
What personal data does Incogni remove?
How does Incogni work?
Incogni prices and subscriptions
Our experience using Incogni
Does Incogni keep your data safe?
Surfshark Incogni customer support
Incogni alternatives
Incogni review FAQs
Bottom line: Is Incogni good?
Incogni review at a glance
Price | $6.49–$12.98/mo |
Free trial | No |
Data broker opt-out | Yes |
Marketing list removal | Yes |
Privacy reports | No |
Details | Get Incogni |
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.
There are people search and data broker sites that list places you’ve lived, your phone number, birthday, and names of your relatives. All this feels like an invasion of privacy, even though it's perfectly legal. 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 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 activating our account, Incogni’s service quickly removed our data from nine sites and requested data removal from over a hundred other pages online that include personal information.
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 appreciate Incogni giving us the tools to learn more about how our data is handled.
Incogni pros and cons
- Low maintenance
- Well-organized information
- Fast response and removal
- No privacy reports
- No extra features like email masking
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 compile and 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
Feature | Incogni |
Data broker opt-out | |
Marketing list removal | |
Email privacy | |
Privacy reports | |
Real-time alerts | |
Details | Get Incogni |
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 not only requests but necessitates the removal of personal data from broker databases, making the opt-out process persuasive and authoritative. It estimates that if you were to do this process yourself, it would take approximately 304 hours of your time just for the initial removal requests. Follow-up requests could be infinite.
Incogni prices and subscriptions
There are only two pricing options: annual or monthly. There are no service levels. 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 (billed annually)), 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.
You could do all of the work yourself to hunt down and remove your data from the internet. Unfortunately, to do this effectively, you'd be spending more than a full-time job's worth of time managing and maintaining your privacy. Incogni is essential because, by reducing your online footprint, you reduce your risk of becoming a victim of spam, scams, and even identity theft.
Incogni plans comparison
Plan | Annual plan | Monthly plan |
Price per month | $6.49/mo (billed annually) | $12.98/mo |
Price per year | $77.88/yr |
$155.88/yr |
Number of people covered | 1 | 1 |
Free trial | ||
Details | View Plan | View Plan |
According to the website, Incogni is available to residents of the following:
- The U.S.
- Kanada
- The U.K.
- Isle of Man
- Schweiz
- Norwegen
- Island
- 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 scanned.
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 personally identifiable information. 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
![The Incogni dashboard shows you statistics on how many sites have received requests to delete your information and how many have completed that removal process.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/31/incogni-review_01.png)
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.
No reports have been sent, but you can log in at any time to see the progress of your data removal inquiries.
![Incogni doesn't send reports, but you have the ability to log in at any time and see the progress of your data removal inquiries.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/31/incogni-review_02.png)
Additional features
Incogni doesn’t have additional features. The most advanced feature 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 regularly marketing to.
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.
![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.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/31/incogni-review_03.png)
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.
![We checked whether Incogni successfully removed our data from the ASL Marketing site and saw it was successful.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/31/incogni-review_04.png)
Does Incogni keep your data safe?
Incogni doesn’t have a bad privacy policy. 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. In fact, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are two U.S. laws intended to protect your information.
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.
![Incogni offers mostly self-help customer service and guides.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/31/incogni-review_07.png)
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 that you can cancel at any time.
![If you do need additional assistance, there’s a submission form on the Incogni website that generates email support.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/31/incogni-review_08.png)
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 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. See how it compares in our DeleteMe vs. Incogni review.
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. See how it compares in our HelloPrivacy vs. Incogni review.
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
Is Incogni worth it?
In our opinion, Incogni is worth using. If you are wondering whether you should pay for an annual plan, it's worth considering that Incogni sends out recurring requests to ensure data brokers comply and remove your data. And it also sends out requests to any new data broker sites that open up.
Keeping your personal info off the internet is an excellent first step toward protecting yourself from identity theft, scammers, and even spammers. And Incogni fully automates the entire process so you don't have to worry about it.
How long does it take for Incogni to work?
Legally most data sites have to delete your information within 30 to 45 days of receiving your request. However, not all sites will follow the law and Incogni then gets to work following up to make sure it’s done. Unfortunately, there’s no 100% guarantee that your data will be removed in a timely manner.
Who owns Incogni?
Incogni is owned by Surfshark.
Does Surfshark come with Incogni?
You can get Surfshark with Incogni if you opt for the Surfshark One+ bundle. This bundle combines the privacy-centric VPN service of Surfshark with the data-erasing prowess of Incogni, creating a robust shield against online privacy infringements.
Additionally, this bundle includes other noteworthy services, such as Surfshark's antivirus and alert services, enveloping users in a multi-layered cloak of digital security. The comprehensive nature of the Surfshark One+ bundle at only $4.29/mo (billed biennially) makes it a worthy investment for those intent on fortifying their online presence against a myriad of cyber threats.
Does Incogni stop spam emails?
Incogni stops spam emails by eradicating sensitive information, including email addresses, from data broker databases.
The scourge of spam emails often has roots in personal data floating around in the digital abyss. Incogni effectively chokes off the source, leading to a noticeable reduction in spam emails. It's a domino effect — once your email address is scrubbed off from these data brokers, the torrent of spam emails trickles down to a more manageable flow, bringing you closer to a spam-free inbox.
How many data brokers does Incogni opt-out data from?
Incogni has 180+ different data brokers that it currently sends data deletion requests. This includes public and private data brokers that are both free search as well as paid sites. For example, Public Record Search is a free data search site that Incogni will contact to have your data removed.
How can I keep data brokers from getting my personal information?
Embracing privacy-focused tools and practices is imperative to prevent data brokers from accessing personal information. Here are some measures worth considering:
- VPNs (virtual private networks): By masking your IP address and encrypting your online traffic, VPNs veil your online activities, making it arduous for data brokers to track and collect your data.
- Data removal services: Services like Incogni delve into the trenches to root out and erase personal data from broker databases, significantly reducing your digital footprint.
- Private search engines: Unlike mainstream search engines, private search engines like DuckDuckGo don’t track or store your search queries, which is a step forward in keeping your data away from prying eyes.
- Password managers: With robust password managers, create and store complex passwords that are formidable barriers against unauthorized access to your accounts.
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.
![A blue background with images of locks and shields with the text "Data Privacy Protection Review DeleteMe Review" and the All About Cookies logo.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/315x315/filters:quality(75)/images/2023/05/18/deleteme_review-1.jpg)
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![A blue background with images of locks and shields and the text "DeleteMe vs. HelloPrivacy"](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/315x315/filters:quality(75)/images/2024/06/27/deleteme_vs._helloprivacy.jpg)
![A blue background with images of locks and shields and the text "DeleteMe vs. Privacy Bee"](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/315x315/filters:quality(75)/images/2024/06/27/deleteme_vs._privacy_bee.jpg)
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![A blue background with images of locks and shields with the text “Incogni vs. Privacy Bee” and the All About Cookies logo.](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/315x315/filters:quality(75)/images/2024/06/26/incogni_vs._privacy_bee_featured_image.png)
![A blue background with images of locks and shields and the text "DeleteMe vs. Incogni"](https://cdn.allaboutcookies.org/315x315/filters:quality(75)/images/2024/06/26/deleteme_vs._incogni.jpg)