Why 2026 should be the year you take control of your privacy with Incogni

This is the time of year when most people’s excitement about their New Year’s resolution begins to fade. Gym visits are less frequent, diets are more difficult, and those screen time goals we so diligently set may already be broken.

But if you’re one of those who decided that 2026 will be the year you take control of your online privacy, then keeping the resolution has never been easier…

Data brokers sell your personal data

Data brokers sell your personal data every day of the year. They can buy data files containing everything from your web browsing habits and interests to your location history and offer them to you for resale. The holidays are a time when people are more active online, which gives marketers new opportunities to update the data they have on you.

How does this happen? Every time we register on a website or use a new application, we will usually have to check the box that says we agree to the privacy policy. Most of us have never read it, but even if we did, it probably wouldn’t help much.

These lengthy documents are deliberately vague, using phrases such as “we will share your data with selected partners.” It does not appear at all that this means that they will sell it to data brokers who will then sell it to their customers.

The worst part is that your personal data is bought by companies that want to target you with advertisements. In the worst case scenario, cybercriminals gain access to that data, which makes it available to fraudsters and identity thieves. In the days of highly convincing deepfake videos, a scam with personal data that you think is only known to you and your loved ones can be very dangerous.

Requests for abatement

By law, data brokers must remove your data if you tell them to, which is done using what’s known as a takedown request. However, this is not easy. Companies purposely make these links hard to find, and force you to jump through many hoops to get out of claims. Some of them even break the law by not providing links in the first place.

Even when you succeed, your victory will likely be temporary. New data is being bought and added all the time, so you will need to repeatedly issue the same downgrade requests to the same companies in an endless cycle.

Incogni does the work for you

This is where Incogni comes in. Not only do they do all the hard work for you on all the hundreds of data brokers, genealogy websites, and social media, but they monitor to make sure it’s done, scan for later additions of new data, and issue new download requests.

Unlike other services, Incogni helps remove your sensitive information from everything types of marketer, including those tricky Human Search Sites that are often missed.

With the company’s unlimited plan, you can even post links you’ve found yourself and Incogni will take care of it for you.

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