Incogni Review 2025: Features, Pros & Cons
Updated: Jan 3, 2025, 5:13 pm
Our Verdict
Our Verdict
Incogni is a privacy tool designed to automatically remove personal data from data brokers, reducing the risk of identity theft, spam, and misuse. It simplifies the complex task of managing data removal requests by automating the process and monitoring over 180 data brokers. Key benefits include saving time, providing legal backing through privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, and offering an easy-to-use dashboard for tracking progress. It’s ideal for those concerned about protecting their online privacy without manual effort.
Pros
- Automated data removal saves time
- User-friendly dashboard with progress tracking
- Transparent reporting
- Weekly updates keep users informed
- Affordable pricing with no confusing tiers
Cons
- Limited to regions with privacy laws
- Misses some large data brokers
- Slow data removal due to broker delays
- Lacks live chat or phone support
- Only supports one email and address
What is Incogni?
At a glance
In today’s hyperconnected world, being online means leaving your personal data out there in the open. After all, internet privacy is a myth. However, Incogni is aiming to change that notion with its data deletion services. Essentially, Incogni contacts all brokers housing your data on the internet and sends removal requests to them. As a result, most of your online data gets gradually deleted from the internet, hence restoring your privacy. Incogni’s tagline is the perfect representation of what the service does – reclaim your privacy!
Pricing: $14.98/month for the individual plan; $7.49/month when billed annually. Starts at $129/month/employee for businesses.
Features you’ll love:
- Prevents exposure to cyber criminals: According to CNN, Americans lost close to $12.5B to internet attacks in 2023, It’s getting increasingly easy for online cyber-attacks and phishing emails to make their way to your inbox, and you might just end up clicking on a link you weren’t supposed to. Once you do that, you may end up losing access to your accounts, or even worse, all your life’s savings.
In place of apps that save you from these attacks, Incogni doesn’t even allow things to escalate to that stage. It sends requests to data brokers to pull your details off the grid so scammers and hackers don’t have access to them in the first place. If they don’t have your email ID or phone number, how will they even reach you? - Maintains privacy and protects from doxing: Apart from scammers who scrape the web for data, several individuals may use various services and search engines to find more information about you. This may include your email ID, phone number, social media profiles, and sometimes, even physical addresses. Having all of these details available publicly can lead to doxing or compromising one’s privacy.
Incogni ensures you don’t get doxxed by deleting all relevant information about you from these search engines and web portals. As a result, someone who looks for your name will not be able to see any sensitive information that you prefer to keep private. - Gets rid of unwanted marketing spam: Another annoyance that’s on the rise is constant marketing and sales calls trying to sell you a service or product. Whether it’s a holiday travel package or an insurance plan for your pet, these marketing calls not only cause disturbance but can also be rather persuasive and might convince you to buy something you don’t need.
Moreover, this marketing spam even extends to online portals. For example, you may see several spam ads when browsing the web or you might be receiving marketing emails about promotions. Incogni gets rid of these – thus cleansing your browsing experience.
Don’t confuse Incogni with an antivirus program or malware protection software. It’s not that. Instead of detecting threats and preventing them from hijacking your data, Incogni gets to the root of the problem and prevents data brokers from selling your data to potential scammers or hackers. Essentially, it’s a service that can be used in tandem with an antivirus program like Guardio or Norton.
While I was researching more information related to Incogni, a big factor that convinced me to take the leap was that the service is owned by Surfshark – one of the most popular VPN providers across the globe. I personally use Surfshark every single day to keep my internet sessions private. Incogni takes that to the next level by also removing any existing traces of my online footprint.
Apart from selling your data to potential hackers or scammers, a big reason why you may want to wipe your online data off from the hands of these brokers is that financial institutions also have access to them. How does that affect you; you ask? Well, insurance companies may have the right to deny your claim based on your online activities or search results.
Certain banks may also deny sanctioning loans to you on the basis of this data. These are large risks that go way beyond spam emails and messages, and this is where Incogni ends up being extremely useful. Think of it as a permanent incognito mode for all the time you spend online.
My Experience Using Incogni
What I love about Incogni is the transparency in reporting. The results of the data search and inquiries with brokers are all displayed in a portal so I can see the websites that had my data. In addition, Incogni also gives you frequent updates about the status of a removal request. You can see when the request was placed, if/when the broker responded to the request, and when the data was deleted by the broker.
Another noteworthy addition to the Ironwall360 package is the access to recorded webinars. Via these sessions, Incogni informed me how to keep my data safe and how I can send manual data removal requests to portals that Incogni can’t reach in some regions. These sessions not only provide valuable insights but also enhanced the overall user experience.
I also liked the fact that Incogni wastes no time upon signing up. Once you’ve entered all your details, the platform automatically starts sending pull-down requests to data brokers. This allows you to start with a one-month subscription to see the results firsthand before deciding to commit to the yearly plan.
That said, I do wish there was a week-long trial so I could make up my mind based on the results. However, the money-back guarantee offers a similar experience.
Who Is Incogni For?
Anyone and everyone on the internet. Yes, that’s how I look at Incogni. Anyone who spends any time on the internet has the right to privacy. And the only way to get it in this day and age is by using a service like Incogni.
More specifically, Incogni’s target audience is internet users who are paranoid about cyber-attacks, hacking, and compromised credentials. If you think your accounts are at risk of getting hacked and you have a lot at stake, an Incogni subscription is a no-brainer.
For example, if you’re a content creator, your social media account is your bread and butter. You wouldn’t want to jeopardize it at any cost. In such cases, it can be beneficial to use Incogni to remove your online account data that could get compromised. It’s also for those who are tired of answering multiple spam calls a day and simply want added peace of mind.
Depending on your use case, Incogni offers multiple subscription tiers that can be categorized based on the number of people using it. Here’s a brief summary of all of them.
- Individual Plan: As the name suggests, this plan is intended for individuals who are going to use Incogni just by themselves. You can sign up with a single account and request for your data to be removed from multiple brokers’ databases. This plan is ideal for individuals who want a simple solution to protect their personal data online.
- Family & Friends Plan: This plan includes all the benefits of the individual plan but also provides protection for up to five users. That’s essentially online safety for the entire family. If you don’t have a family that big, you can always share the subscription with friends. That way, you will pay less per person.
- Ironwall: While the two subscriptions mentioned above are targeted towards individuals and families, the Ironwall tier – quite fancily named – is targeted towards enterprises and small businesses. The plan covers all employees of an organization and their family members which is a huge bonus. Along with all the benefits offered in the individual tier, Ironwall provides two extra features - recorded webinars about cybersecurity, and live phone support during business hours.
- Ironwall360: This is the most comprehensive plan Incogni has in its portfolio. You might have guessed from the name that this tier provides 360-degree protection for all employees of an organization. It does so by scanning online portals and brokers for your data every single business day. Moreover, if a broker does not comply with quick data removal, Incogni assists users of the Ironwall360 tier with escalation to the Attorney General or filing of lawsuits in civil court. Furthermore, Incogni also offers one-on-one support for any issues or privacy threats, along with a VPN for up to six devices, disposable email IDs for masking, and a VoIP phone number. Talk about top-tier protection.
Core Features
If you’re wondering how Incogni works and how it protects you on the internet, here’s a list of tasks it performs from start to end. The entire data deletion pipeline involves several steps. Once you sign up for Incogni, the outline is as follows.
1. Scanning People Search Sites
As soon as you subscribe to Incogni, the first step is for the service to start scanning all online portals and brokers for your data. It does so by pinging all the brokers in its database, requesting access to your personal information.
As per Incogni, it looks for private information not just on popular social media sites and search engines but also on lesser-known portals.
2. Sending Removal Request
Once Incogni has obtained a list of the brokers that have access to your data, it sends removal requests to all of them. Once this step takes place, Incogni provides a certain time window for these brokers to delete your data.
If the data isn't removed within the stipulated time, Incogni sends repeated removal requests until the data is finally deleted.
3. In-depth Data Removal
There may be some hidden services or websites housing invaluable data related to you. These websites or people-finder applications may not appear on the surface when you look up your name on search engines.
Incogni’s search algorithms cover such portals too – something that competitors may not necessarily do. This type of in-depth search and removal is what sets Incogni apart.
4. Tracking and Adding New Data Brokers
You may be wondering – if Incogni can remove your online data in one go, what’s the point of a subscription? Well, that’s because the service keeps adding new data brokers to its database and tracks them regularly for your data.
When a new broker captures your information, Incogni automatically sends a takedown request.
5. Regular Privacy Reports
It’s important to keep a tab on the progress to see if any action is being taken regarding your data.
That’s where the privacy reports come in handy. The report lists how many takedown requests were sent and which sites obliged.
6. Tools and Tips for Data Removal
In certain countries where Incogni doesn’t have relevant permissions, it cannot automatically delete your data from certain brokers. In such cases, you are given access to certain tools and solutions using which you can send removal requests by yourself.
7. Legal Underpinning
With the Ironwall360 protection tier, Incogni can take legal action against brokers who don’t comply with removal requests and escalate the matter to higher authorities on your behalf. This is a godsend for large businesses where the security and privacy of the organization and its employees are of utmost importance.
8. Emergency Support
Facing a threat and want support to resolve it? Incogni’s customer service representatives have you covered. You can request one-on-one support in the form of a chat or a phone call during business hours, provided you’re a part of the business plan.
What Sets Incogni Apart From the Rest
For starters, Incogni uses an automated system to check for data leaks and locate your information in brokers’ databases. Unlike competitors that rely on manual work, Incogni’s recognition algorithms are much quicker and more efficient.
What’s also nice is Incogni offers a monthly subscription so if you want to use it to temporarily remove your data, you don’t have to pay for the entire year. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee ensuring you can always cancel your subscription if you’re not fond of the service.
Getting Started and Support
The Incogni onboarding process involves registering for the service and picking a subscription plan of your choice. After that, you’ll be asked to provide the company permission to access and delete your data. After reviewing the list of details you’ve provided, you can confirm to start the process, allowing Incogni to begin analyzing your information with data brokers.
After completing the onboarding process, you will gain access to your privacy dashboard where you can view the number of requests sent by Incogni, along with how many were successful. If you’re having issues with the service, you can reach out to the Incogni team via the website. For enterprise users, there’s one-on-one instant support during business hours.
Pricing and Plans
Incogni offers both monthly and yearly subscriptions and the prices are as follows -
Personal
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly |
| Individual | $14.98 | $89.88 |
| Family & Friends | $32.98 | $197.88 |
Business
| Features | Ironwall | Ironwall360 |
| Secure online portal | Yes | Yes |
| Comprehensive scanning and removal | At frequent intervals | Every business day |
| Protection for all residing family members | Yes | Yes |
| Live support during business hours | Via website | Via one-on-one call |
| Recorded webinars about cyber-security | Yes | Yes |
| Escalation of unresolved removals | By sending repeated requests | To the Attorney General or civil court |
| Enhanced privacy protection | No | Free VPN and dummy email |
| Pricing | $129 per person per year | $400 per person per year |
Alternatives
The first obvious alternative that comes to mind for a service like Incogni is DeleteMe. It has been around for the longest time and was one of the first of its kind. However, DeleteMe’s pricing is slightly on the higher side and the process of sending deletion requests is not automated. As a result, the turnaround time can be much longer.
Then, there’s Optery which also provides a free tier – something that’s missing on Incogni. The free tier provides information about all the brokers that have your data along with instructions to manually send removal requests by yourself. This is a good option to start off with just to figure out how spread out your data is on the internet. After that, you can always come back to Incogni for automated removal.
Privacy Bee is yet another service that offers the same capabilities. However, it is also pricier than Incogni and only offers annual subscription tiers. This is where Incogni shines. The fact that you can subscribe for a single month to try out the service before splurging hundreds of dollars and committing for a whole year makes it a good proposition.
Final Thoughts
If you’re concerned about your online privacy and want to ensure sensitive information about you and your family doesn’t get into the wrong hands, Incogni is a fantastic investment. It keeps you protected at regular intervals, and also trains you on best practices to keep your data private.
For business owners and enterprises, Incogni is a no-brainer since it helps protect both company and employee information from potential exposure. If you’re a group of friends, the friends and family plan is quite reasonable at just over $3 per person per month. That’s definitely an excellent price to pay for peace of mind.
Sumukh brings over six years of technical expertise with a strong focus on security tools and web privacy. He leverages his background in engineering to simplify complex technologies and help users make informed choices about the tools and gadgets they rely on. His work spans in-depth guides, detailed reviews, and expert opinions for leading publications such as KDnuggets, Guiding Tech, and XDA-Developers.