Incogni Review and Pricing 2024
Our digital security experts tested and reviewed Incogni. We found it to be a great option for downsizing your digital footprint.
What We Like
- Works in countries outside the U.S.
- Detailed dashboard provides meaningful insights
- Affordable price point
What We Don't Like
- Only removes data from 180 sites
- No Free Plan
- Limited resources available
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a data removal tool that does what it says it’s going to do, Incogni might be for you. Just be prepared to wait while it does its thing.The internet is a pretty amazing place. All of the collected knowledge of humankind is at the tips of our fingers at any given moment. We mostly use it to share cat videos and order take out, but I digress.
It can also be used for some pretty nefarious purposes. These days identity theft is rampant, and data breaches are a common occurrence. Unknown entities collect and sell your data to anyone willing to buy it, including potential employers, would-be fraudsters, and weird exes.
That’s why a lot of people are trying to tidy up their digital presence and remove their personally identifiable information from data brokerages and people-finder sites. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Google your first and last name as well as the city you live in.
Creepy, right?
Well there are plenty of services out there that claim they can automatically remove these profiles from the internet, greatly reducing the amount of data out there about you. Incogni is one such service, but can it actually do what it claims to? And should you trust them with this task?
I spent a few weeks putting Incogni to the test, and will share all of my findings with you as well as recommendations on whether or not you should use them. Before we get into the details, though, I want to talk to you about how I developed this review.
Security.org’s Methodology
All of my reviews start with research. I spend hours looking into companies’ claims and compare them against customer experiences. I read reviews of their services and get an understanding of their overall reputation for context.
>> Learn More: We Don’t Use AI to Write
Next, I purchase the service without any sort of company intervention. No press passes, no preferential treatment. I use the service just like a normal customer would for a few weeks to measure their capabilities and test my experiences against their claims. Once I’m satisfied, I provide recommendations to our readers.
So now that you understand my methods, let’s get into my hands-on test of Incogni.
Incogni: The First Pass
So right off the bat, I was a little underwhelmed by Incogni’s website. There isn’t a ton of information on it, and the educational resources they offer are pretty limited. I also was a little concerned about the counter showing the number of data removal requests sent — at the time of this writing, it was only 584. That sounds low to me, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They’re only two years old, after all.1
While I was conducting my research for this review, I found an interesting bit of information. Incogni was created by a top VPN provider, Surfshark, as an add-on service for their premium customers. And competitors took notice. Another best-selling VPN, Nord, partnered with Incogni in 2022 to offer the services to its clients as well. If you’re not up to speed on the VPN industry, those are two of the biggest names. That really boosted my confidence in Incogni’s abilities.
Pro Tip: If you want to see how these two VPN giants stack up against each other, read my Nord vs. Surfshark side-by-side comparison.
So while I wasn’t exactly impressed with the level of detail on their website, I pushed forward and signed up for the service. Let’s talk about how that went.
Incogni Pricing
Incogni only offers one tier of service, and unlike what I saw when I reviewed Kanary, there is no free trial period. You can choose between a monthly and an annual plan, though. Here’s a breakdown of those costs.
Plan | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | Total Savings |
---|---|---|---|
Monthly Plan | $12.98 | $155.76 | N/A |
Annual Plan | $6.49 | $77.88 | 50 percent |
Now there’s something worth pointing out here. Legally, most data brokers have between 30 and 45 days to comply with opt-out requests, meaning that if you’re really interested in scrubbing the internet of information about you, it’s probably going to take more than a month. I’ve come to find that these removals are a little like playing whack-a-mole. Once one is removed, two others pop up in their place. If this is something you really want to do right, I’d recommend signing up for the annual service.
Also keep in mind that regardless of the plan you sign up for, Incogni offers a 30-day, money-back guarantee. Good to know. Now with that context, I went ahead and purchased my plan.
Setting Up Incogni
Once you purchase the plan you selected by entering your credit card information, you’re sent a verification email. Once you click on that link, you’ll set up a password and create your profile.
From there, you’ll start entering your personal information. That includes:
- Full name
- Address
- City
- State
- Zip Code
- Country
Pro Tip: Make sure all the information entered is correct. Incogni will use it to search for websites that have your data, which is usually tied to your name. Learn more about the process of getting your name off of the internet in this guide.
Next, you’re asked to sign an authorization form that essentially allows Incogni to act as a proxy to delete your data for you. Here’s a look at the fine print:
I, XXXXXX, residing at XXXXXXX, email address XXXXXX, hereby appoint Incogni Inc., with registered address at 506 S Spring St #13308, Los Angeles, California, 90013, (the ‘Agent’), to act as an authorized agent and perform all lawful actions that are necessary to exercise, on my behalf, my following rights under applicable privacy legislation, including (but not limited to) the California Consumer Privacy Act (‘CCPA’) and the California Privacy Right Act (CPRA) (‘Privacy Laws’) and submit requests for implementation of these rights to any legal and natural persons governed by the Privacy Laws:
- To obtain erasure (deletion) of my personal data (information);
- To withdraw any consent I have given to the processing of my personal data (information);
- To object to processing of personal data (information) concerning me, including but not limited to profiling and direct marketing.
I agree and acknowledge that:
- the Agent may withdraw from this limited representation at its sole discretion;
- this Authorization form will terminate automatically with respect to any particular natural or legal person against which my rights under the Privacy Laws are being exercised, once that particular legal or natural person satisfied the request under the Privacy Laws submitted by the Agent.
In reviews of similar services this type of agreement form never came up, but I didn’t see anything here that raised any red flags. I went ahead and digitally signed, confirmed the data I entered was accurate, and clicked “Start Data Removal.”
From there, you’re taken to your dashboard. Here’s what that looks like:
Pretty simple, but also effective. As you can see, right off the bat there were 79 files found, but I expected that number to increase as time went on.
There was also a prompt at the top of the screen to provide additional information that data brokers might need to fulfill removal requests, namely my phone number and date of birth.
Once I’d filled that out, I tried poking around under the hood to see what else I could do. The “detailed view” is where I went first:
This is a pretty interesting dashboard, where you can see the company name, the status of your request, how compliant or resistant they are to complying with removal requests, and the risk each company poses. Censia had the highest level of risk, so I decided to investigate them a little further by clicking on their dropdown tab.
Now this is really interesting information. You can see the average time it takes for a resolution to take effect, you can view your request history, you can learn more about the database itself, and you can see all of the associated risks that come with having your information show up there. This is by far the most detailed reporting I’ve seen with one of these services, and I was really impressed with how granular Incogni is able to get here.
So far so good, but as I mentioned above, these services take some time to do their thing. I decided to check back in a week and see what progress had been made.
Did You Know: When I reviewed DeleteMe, it checked over 750 websites, which is one of the highest for data removal services. Its removal process is handled manually by humans, whereas Incogni uses automation to delete profiles.
Incogni at One Week
At one week, Incogni’s progress was pretty impressive — 100 total profiles removed. At this point Kanary had only removed three profiles, and Onerep had nabbed 16. It’s also worth pointing out that Incogni has suppressed 28 profiles, meaning that the organization would not create a new profile on me in the future. This is a pretty unique feature that really improves your long-term success in scrubbing the internet of your personal information.
Now you might be wondering — like I was — why Incogni’s one-week accomplishments are so much more impressive than their competitors. It has a little to do with the way it counts “completed” removals.
When you first start up the service, it sends out a bunch of automated emails to sites that it knows has information on you, and some it assumes probably do. If it gets a response back from those sites saying they don’t have a file on you, it counts those as “complete.”
>> Learn More: Five Ways to Opt-Out of Personal Data Collection
While it seems a little less-than-transparent, it’s still clear that Incogni is extremely effective at what it does. Given how quickly it worked in just seven days, I’m excited to see the progress after two weeks.
Incogni at Two Weeks
Well, that impressive first week really slowed down heading into week two. At 14 days after the initial round of removals, 101 profiles had been removed. For the folks keeping score at home, that means Incogni was only able to remove one profile after the initial push.
Still, what I said in week one stands. Legally speaking, many of these data brokers and people-finder sites have up to 45 days to respond to removal requests. No matter which service you go with, you’re going to have to play a bit of a waiting game to see things through to completion.
Despite the slowdown, I’m still impressed with Incogni’s capabilities, though. I would have liked to see a little more progress in week two, but it’s not something I’m going to hold against this service.
See how Incogni stacks up against the competition
For a closer look at how Incogni performs, we compared it with other popular brands.
My Overall Impressions of Incogni
Overall, I’d say that Incogni does a great job of what it says it will do. It gets to work right away and appears to be very effective in a short amount of time. Take their removal statistics with a grain of salt, but at the end of the day this system was able to remove — and suppress — an impressive number of files. It’s easy to use and very affordable, to boot.
Would I Recommend Incogni?
I would absolutely recommend Incogni to anyone looking to increase their anonymity online. It works fast, and its ability to prevent data brokers and people-finder sites from generating a new file on you once the previous one is removed is a game changer. As far as automated data removal services go, Incogni is among the best.
Incogni FAQs
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Does Incogni really work?
Yes, our hands-on tests demonstrated that Incogni is effective at removing profiles from data brokers and people-finder sites. They are also able to prevent some sites from creating new profiles on you.
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Are data brokers legal?
Unfortunately, yes. Data brokers and people-finder sites compile personal information about you that is available through other sources in one place. What they are doing isn’t illegal, but it can be viewed as an invasion of privacy.
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Will Incogni delete social media posts?
No, Incongi does not have the ability to remove posts about you on social media platforms. If you are being harassed or bullied, you should reach out to the platform’s privacy team.
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Will Incogni prevent people from seeing my police record?
No, Incogni cannot hide public records. In order to prevent people from finding this type of information, you’ll need to legally expunge your record.
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How can I remove a news story about me?
There is no automated way to remove a story that mentions your name from a news site. If you’re concerned about your privacy you can reach out to the site’s editorial team, or, if you feel like you’re the victim of libel, you can contact a lawyer.
Tracxn. (2024). Incogni company profile.
tracxn.com/d/companies/incogni/__iJmm_-I9_Nu5zSkd52Ys1odVCQYO43oQhsPlXjhUYlw