What happens when a data removal service shuts down?

What happens when a data removal service shuts down?

When we started Kanary in 2020, our business plan listed our competitors: Removaly, Sparticus, Jumbo, Erazer. If you don’t recognized these companies, it’s because they’re all dead. And the most recent news? Mozilla is shutting down their Monitor Plus product on December 17.

In their words, this is part of a broader strategic shift: refocusing on core privacy initiatives that align with Mozilla’s long-term mission.

But this pattern isn’t new, but it seems to be accelerating, and says something about the privacy world: running data removals at scale is brutally hard. We know because we’ve been fighting this battle - and investing in heavy R&D - every day for six years.

Why does this keep happening?

The short answer is because too many companies enter the space thinking data removal can be a “set it and forget it” automated solution. And it’s not. It’s an endlessly shifting ecosystem:

• Data brokers change opt out forms constantly

• New sites launch every month

• Existing sites quietly adjust their loopholes

• Automated removal tricks that worked last quarter often stop working the next quarter

Partners looking for low-cost removal services have to realize that they’re going up against well-funded brokers, so expecting high removal rates with a low investment is an unrealistic expectation to begin with.

Here’s the formula that keeps repeating across the industry:

Underinvest in engineering and research — result quality declines — attract customers who don’t value quality — those customers resist paying — investment stays low — results continue to decline, and eventually the service collapses.

It’s a self-fulfilling cycle. And unless companies intentionally break it, the outcome is always the same.

There’s a better way to do this.

At Kanary, we’re stubborn in the best way:

• We invest heavily in engineering and threat research

• Constantly expand our site coverage and monitor and update our removal automations

• Provide real, human support that actually responds and goes the extra mile to help each of our members’ unique situations

We learned early that if we ever compromise on quality, the entire product becomes meaningless.

Lessons from the Removaly story:

Removaly is a good example of how complicated this space can get, especially as companies scale.

Before getting acquired by DuckDuckGo in 2023, Removaly built a loyal community through reliable removals and direct, founder-led support. Their daily scans were particularly loved by people with high exposure risk. It was a bootstrapped team doing impressive work with limited resources.

After the acquisition, the service changed:

• Site coverage shrank

• The roadmap shifted

• The product became one piece of a larger bundle

This happens all the time when big players acquire smaller, mission-driven teams. Sometimes it works, often times it doesn’t because the incentives change.

Kanary is built to outlast the cycle this industry keeps getting stuck in

We are obsessive. Abuse, fraud, and exploitation drives us crazy. So we’re motivated to go above and beyond for members, despite the ups and downs.

We use a targeted threat-model-based approach. The security world is full of low-signal, high-volume noise that burns people out. So we purposely don’t alert you about 1,000s of brokers that don’t matter to you. We focus on top search engine, people search, and social media results that are likely to get you or your team into trouble.

We’ve invested millions in building proprietary software that allow us to ‘speed run’ opt outs, settings changes, and escalations. We do not outsource our technology or services to third parties. This may make our service more expensive than other offerings, but the results speak for themselves and are compounding as we grow.

Unfortunately, the bad behavior of a few companies in our industry (who ultimately shut down), have left people wondering if any service or vendor is worth trusting. We’re working hard to change that narrative. We’d love the chance to work together on it.

By investing in hard problems, hiring real people to solve them, never selling your data, and avoiding shortcuts and unrealistic underpricing, we’re able to operate effectively.

We’ll continue to stick to our values (https://www.kanary.com/about) and do things the right way, even if it’s hard. If you’re looking for a replacement you can rely on, we’d love to hear from you! [email protected].