You have probably never heard of Data Brokers and yet: these companies specializing in data collection know almost everything about you. Worse, they market this data often without your knowledge. Fortunately, there is a way to regain control: Incogni.
Why do I receive dozens of unwanted phone calls or SMS (CPF, telemarketers)? Who subscribed me to this commercial newsletter without my asking anything? How do the ads I see online manage to suit my tastes so well? Why did a flyer in my name arrive in my mailbox?
So many questions that you have probably already asked yourself at least once and whose answer is in one word: Data Brokers, or data brokers in French. A term that brings together a category of companies specializing in the collection and resale of personal data, and against which it is difficult to fight. All the more so if we do not know that they exist, or what their role is. Cash Investigation has also extensively dug the subject twice in recent years with surveys that are edifying to say the least.
Incogni was created to help you regain control of your personal data. This service launched this year by Surfshark (the VPN and cybersecurity service) has one goal: to allow Internet users to regain control of their personal data scattered on the web. How ? By directly targeting these Data Brokers and their databases to tell them to erase your personal data.
What exactly is a Data Broker?
It’s no secret: every action we perform on the web leaves traces. Favorite sites, identity card number, purchases made online, telephone number or postal address are all fragments of your life that can be collected very simply, and used without your knowledge.
What you may not know, however, is that this rule is just as true off the internet. Fill out a loyalty card form in a store and presto: your email or physical address, your telephone number, your age and many other equally intimate data end up in the hands of a third party. The same applies if you subscribe to any insurance or contract, depending on who you are talking to.
Behind this methodical invasion of your privacy are hidden specialized companies that are grouped under the name of Data Brokers. Their business is at the limits of legality and little known to the general public. Dozens, even hundreds of companies that collect and store information (up to 1,500 data points) on Internet users to then resell it to third parties. And the best (for them) is that all this remains legal, and that everything can take place without your knowledge.
Does this mean that nothing can be done against these companies? Absolutely not. Many laws, particularly in Europe and France, allow individuals to regain control of their personal data.
At the forefront of this fight for the protection of personal data is the GDPR. As a reminder, this is a European regulation launched in 2018 which strictly regulates the way in which data collected by companies circulates and is processed. In particular, it establishes the right to be forgotten, by obliging companies to delete the personal data of Internet users who request it.
It is therefore technically possible to ask Data Brokers to delete all traces of your data in their registers. However, it is a tedious process, requiring time and energy that very few people have. And that’s where Incogni comes in.
How does Incogni work?
It may seem paradoxical, but to help you regain control of your personal data, Incogni begins by asking you… your personal data (Name, first name, postal address and email). Why ? Well, quite simply so that the service can know what data is attached to you at the Data Brokers, and thus have it deleted.
This data will also allow Incogni to target the Data Brokers to contact as a priority. No need to complain to companies that do not operate in the area where you live. But this data alone does not allow Incogni to do its job. There is another essential step which consists of a power of attorney authorizing him to act on your behalf.
This delegation of power responds to a strict legal framework, linked only to the deletion of data from Data Brokers, and ends immediately once the said mission has been accomplished. In fact, Incogni can:
- seek out and contact Data Brokers and request deletion of data about you on your behalf;
- revive companies that are dragging their feet and initiate action with the competent authorities (the CNIL for example) against those who refuse to comply;
- regularly monitor that your data does not reappear in the registers of these companies, or with new players.
Discover our experience with Incogni
In order to test the effectiveness of the service, we subscribed to the annual Incogni formula using our personal email and physical addresses. At the end of an extremely short registration process (barely 5 minutes, the time to enter the information ad hoc), Incogni launched the process and identified no less than 80 Data Brokers potentially having our data.
Why potentially? Well because Incogni cannot be sure that the Data Brokers contacted actually have our information in their database. The list offered by the service contains the companies that are most likely to possess our data according to our location. No need, for example, to contact Data Brokers operating exclusively in the USA.
After about a week, 14 Data Brokers have responded to Incogni’s queries and 66 queries are still being processed. However, the GDPR obliges them to process requests received within 30 to 45 days or face penalties. During this period, Incogni takes care of recontacting the most recalcitrant Data Brokers, until all have complied.
Is Incogni’s mission therefore limited in time? Well not quite. Just because you’ve asked Data Brokers to erase your data doesn’t mean they can’t acquire it again. That’s why Incogni, as long as your subscription lasts, keeps an eye on the grain and takes care of regularly sending requests on your behalf to Data Brokers.
Incogni is a service offered by Surfshark on the basis of a monthly subscription at 11.49 euros. It is also possible to opt for an annual plan which allows you to save 50% compared to the monthly formula. You will then only pay 5.79 euros per month, or a little less than 70 euros in all, upon subscription.