Incogni vs DeleteMe vs Optery: the Australian take

All three tools work the same way: you give them your name and address history, and they file removal (opt-out) requests with a list of “data broker” and people-search websites, then re-check periodically to make sure your listing has not reappeared.

That model was built for a specific US problem. Dozens of US people-search companies legally scrape public records (property titles, court filings, voter rolls) and resell them as personal profiles: home address, phone number, relatives, age. With no single overarching US privacy law forcing these sites to ask permission first, opting out site-by-site is genuinely tedious, and that is the gap these tools fill.

Australia does not have the same broker ecosystem. The Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles restrict how organisations collect, use and disclose personal information, so there is no equivalent cottage industry of AU-specific people-search sites at that scale. The real question is not “which of these three tools is best”, it is whether this category of tool solves a problem you actually have in Australia.

Incogni's current plans, billed in USD, are:

• Standard: US$7.99/month, or US$95.88 billed annually
• Unlimited: US$14.99/month, or US$179.88 billed annually
• Family: US$15.99/month, or US$191.88 billed annually
• Family Unlimited: US$22.99/month, or US$275.88 billed annually

Incogni claims coverage of 420+ data broker sites. Its own help centre lists its supported countries as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the EU member states. Australia is not on that list. Incogni frames its legal basis as regional privacy law (GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA), and notes coverage varies by where you are protected under those laws, which points to the Privacy Act not being one of them.

DeleteMe's standard consumer plans are explicitly restricted to US residents. DeleteMe has run a separate international programme in the past, but as of this update its international page states that enrolment for its introductory international plans has ended, with no current sign-up path listed for Australia. Because of that, there is no published AU-facing consumer price to compare.

DeleteMe does publish general privacy-advocacy content about the Australian Privacy Act, but that is informational. It is not the same as an active AU removal service.

Optery is the only one of the three that has publicly announced an Australian launch, alongside New Zealand and South Africa. Its plans, billed in USD, are:

• Basic (free): self-serve opt-out guidance and an exposure report, no card required
• Core: US$3.99/month, or US$39/year, automated removals from 380+ sites
• Extended: US$14.99/month, or US$149/year, 555+ sites, and it adds a human privacy agent and removal-report screenshots
• Ultimate: US$24.99/month, or US$249/year, 635+ sites, unlimited custom removal requests and priority support

Even with an AU launch, Optery's removal list is still overwhelmingly made up of US people-search brokers. Its own marketing does not break out how many of those 380 to 635+ sites hold data specifically about Australians, versus how many simply would not have a record of you if you have never lived, worked or been listed in the US.

Pricing checked 20 July 2026, in USD, as published by each vendor. Convert to AUD and check for local promotions before buying, as broker-removal pricing changes often.

None of Incogni, DeleteMe or Optery scan for your email in known data breaches, and none map the accounts you have actually signed up for over the years. That is a structurally different job. Breach exposure is about credentials that have already leaked from services you used (see what to do if your email is in a data breach), while account sprawl is about the dozens of old logins, forgotten shopping accounts, loyalty programs and apps you tried once, still holding your data somewhere (covered in how to find accounts linked to your email).

For an Australian, this is usually the bigger, more immediate risk. Broker removal deals with a hypothetical stranger finding your address on a people-search site. Breach exposure deals with a password or detail already sitting in a criminal's dataset right now. If you would rather confirm this yourself first, our guide to Have I Been Pwned explains the free check most people run before paying for anything.

Fairness matters here. Broker removal is not useless, it is just aimed at a different exposure than most Australians carry. It is genuinely worth it if:

1. You have lived, studied or worked in the US. If you ever had a US address, US phone number or US-based accounts, you may well be listed on US people-search sites regardless of where you live now.
2. You hold US or dual citizenship, or have close US family ties. Your name and history can end up in US public records even without direct US residency.
3. You are a public figure or executive, or dealing with a stalking or harassment risk. Suppressing home-address lookups is a legitimate defence-in-depth step, on top of, not instead of, breach and account hygiene.
4. You travel to or do business in the US regularly and want to reduce what a search on you turns up there.
5. You want AU-relevant coverage specifically, in which case Optery is currently the more honest starting point of the three, since it is the only one that markets directly to Australia. Just go in expecting that most of what it removes will still be US-listed data, and check current AU broker counts with them directly before paying.

If none of that describes you, your time and money are better spent on the breach and account-sprawl side of the problem first. That is the exposure actually sitting in an Australian's inbox today.

1. Check your email against known breaches. Run a free check to see which past breaches your address appears in and what was leaked, such as a password or phone number.
2. Map the accounts tied to that email. Old, forgotten accounts are often the easiest way in for someone trying to reset your passwords or impersonate you. If you find accounts you no longer use, our guide on how to delete old accounts covers the process account by account.
3. Change reused passwords first. If the same password shows up across breached accounts, that is your highest-priority fix, higher priority than any broker opt-out.
4. Consider a credit ban if financial or ID details leaked. In Australia, credit bans are available through Equifax and Experian (formerly Illion) and stop new credit being opened in your name.
5. Only then, consider broker removal, and only if one of the reasons above applies to you.

In The Event Of works on the other half of the problem. You can connect a supported inbox (Gmail or Outlook) so it can scan for account-related metadata, sender addresses, subject lines and timestamps rather than the body of your emails, or add services manually. It then organises what it finds into a digital footprint, highlights breach exposure, and gives you guided steps for each account, so you can see which old logins are still holding your data. That is the exposure broker removal leaves untouched, and you stay in control of every change.