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We can all agree that data brokers are creepy and bad, and that in this age they have feasted upon our personal information like never before. Opting out is hard enough \u2014 which is why Optery<\/a> is there to help \u2014 but as the data economy continues to evolve, we may want a more proactive management platform to stay on top of it \u2014 which is what Optery is hoping to build.<\/p>\n I met Optery\u2019s co-founder and CEO, Lawrence Gentilello, when he was pitching on our Showcase Stage<\/a> last September at Disrupt. The short presentations there were always teasers, and in Optery\u2019s case I wanted to know more about how they moved the ball past existing opt-out helpers like DeleteMe and PrivacyBee. Then I forgot (Disrupt is a lot) and fortunately they reminded me just as they were about to add $2.7 million to their seed funding.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not familiar, these are services that reach out to the dozens \u2014 in fact, hundreds \u2014 of data brokers out there, companies that hoard whatever data they can find about you and sell it to whoever wants it. Getting yourself and your data off of them is often an exercise in frustration (though if you want to try, Yael\u2019s list<\/a> is the best), so these companies offer opt-out as a service, usually in freemium form.<\/p>\n Optery is no different there: you sign up for free, and an hour or two later you get a report telling you the brokers it has found your data in. This report includes deep links and instructions on how to opt out, as well as screenshots of the info itself so you know what they have. I tested it out and it caught nearly 50 more than what I had already had cleared out with DeleteMe.<\/p>\n