SMF·OPTERY
Can a prompt replace Optery?
Security & passwords — passwords, privacy and private networking
Exhibit tracking slip
Verdict
The trackable part is real: a list of brokers, a record of which ones list you, a screenshot as proof, and a re-check on a schedule. What you cannot build is the removal itself. Optery submits opt-out requests on your behalf, which requires a signed authorisation, a support team handling the ones that need a phone call or an ID upload, and a legal footing to act as your agent. A personal build tells you where you are exposed; it cannot make it stop.
Exhibit A — The prompt
Received on31.07.2026Build a personal data-exposure register: a local tool that tracks where your personal information appears on data-broker sites and whether it has come back.
Data model: a broker record holds a name, the URL of its opt-out page, the method it accepts (web form, email, postal), a typical response time, and free-text notes on the process. Ship an empty database and a documented import format rather than a bundled list, since any list shipped today is wrong within months.
Exposure records: for each broker, the user records whether they were found, what was exposed (name, address, phone, relatives, employer), and the URL of the listing. A capture action opens the listing URL in a headless browser, saves a full-page screenshot and the raw HTML into a dated folder, and links them to the record. That evidence archive is the point of the tool: it is what you attach to a follow-up when a broker claims it never listed you.
Removal workflow: mark a broker as requested, with the date and the method used. Generate a removal request from a template the user edits, including their reference details, and copy it to the clipboard or open a pre-filled mail draft. The tool must never submit a form, log into a site, or send an email on the user's behalf — automating that means impersonating them against sites that never agreed to it, and a bounced automated request is worse than a slow manual one. State this as a design decision in the README.
Re-check cycle: each broker carries a re-check interval, defaulting to 90 days. The dashboard shows what is due, what is overdue, and which brokers have re-listed after a previous successful removal, which is the single most useful number this tool produces.
Reporting: a timeline per broker and an export of the whole register as CSV plus the evidence folder.
Out of scope: automated submission, credential storage, any hosted service, and scanning the web for exposures the user has not found themselves.Opening prefills the prompt — press enter to run it.
Exhibit B — What you lose
- B.1 removals submitted for you — you file every request yourself
- B.2 the broker list, which runs to hundreds of sites and changes constantly
- B.3 authorised-agent status, which is what makes some brokers respond at all
- B.4 the support team that chases the ones which ignore the first request
Exhibit C — Why people still pay: security assurance, infrastructure, and trust
Because opting out is not hard, it is endless. Hundreds of brokers, each with its own form, each re-listing you a few months later, and the entire value of the subscription is that somebody else does it every month forever.
Questions
Can I import Optery's list of brokers it covers?
Optery publishes the broker names it covers, so a list can be assembled by hand, but there is no export that includes the opt-out URLs and methods in a usable form. Building the register is genuinely the work here, and it is the part that stays useful after you cancel.
How is this different from just keeping a spreadsheet?
The screenshot capture and the re-check scheduling. A spreadsheet does not prove a broker listed you in March, and it does not tell you in June that the same broker is listing you again. Both of those are what makes an opt-out campaign stick.
What does it cost to run?
Nothing but disk. It runs locally, the headless browser is free, and the screenshots are the only thing that grows. A few hundred captures is a few hundred megabytes.
What is the one thing that does not survive the rebuild?
Somebody else doing it. Optery's entire value is that removals happen without you, month after month, including the brokers that require a phone call. This build hands you a well-organised to-do list, which is honest but is not the same product.
Related tools
Receipt