Are you concerned about companies collecting vast amounts of your personal data online? Do you want to take control of your privacy in 2023? If so, you may be considering tools like Incogni or Privacy Bee. But how do you decide which one is right for you?
In this comprehensive, 4000+ word guide, I‘ll compare Incogni and Privacy Bee in-depth. As an experienced tech privacy professional, I‘ll analyze their features, data deletion processes, dark web monitoring, customer support, pricing, and more.
My goal is to arm you with the knowledge to make an informed choice based on your specific needs and priorities. Let‘s dive in and explore which platform offers the best solution for managing your privacy in 2023 and beyond.
Contents
- An Introduction to Online Data Privacy Concerns
- An Overview of Incogni‘s Privacy Protection Approach
- An Overview of Privacy Bee‘s Privacy Protection Method
- Incogni vs. Privacy Bee: In-Depth Feature Comparison
- Head-to-Head Comparison Summary
- Why I Recommend Incogni As the Best Choice
- Conclusion: Regain Your Online Privacy with Incogni
An Introduction to Online Data Privacy Concerns
Before analyzing Incogni and Privacy Bee, let‘s briefly discuss the landscape around online privacy. There are two major concerns:
1. Data brokers collecting and selling your information
Data brokers like Acxiom, Experian, and Alliance Data aggregate massive amounts of data on consumers from public records, online activities, purchases, and more. This data gets packaged into profiles and sold to other parties – often without your consent.
A 2022 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report found that data brokers hold data on over 227 million Americans. These vast troves of data pose privacy and security risks.
2. Online tracking for targeted advertising
The average person is tracked by over 300 ad tech companies as they browse the web. Sophisticated trackers like cookies, pixels, and fingerprints follow you around, profiling your interests and demographics for targeted ads.
Over 91% of websites allow third-party tracking according to a 2022 study by Mozilla. This pervasive tracking severely erodes online privacy.
Now let‘s see how Incogni and Privacy Bee aim to address these issues and take back control of your personal data.
An Overview of Incogni‘s Privacy Protection Approach
Incogni is a data deletion and privacy tool created by the team at Surfshark – a popular VPN provider known for its speed, security, and budget-friendly pricing.
Incogni focuses specifically on helping you remove personal data from the hands of data brokers. Let‘s examine how it works:
Key Features of Incogni:
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Automated data deletion – Incogni has compiled a list of over 160 data brokers and automatically sends opt-out and deletion requests on your behalf. This saves you time and effort trying to manage requests manually.
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Data broker audits – Incogni routinely audits its list and examines new data broker sites. If it discovers your data somewhere new, it will automatically send a removal request. This keeps your data scrubbed on an ongoing basis.
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Privacy Score – Incogni provides a Privacy Score based on the number of data breaches, ad trackers, and other factors. This helps you visualize the state of your online privacy.
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Dark web monitoring – Incogni monitors dark web sites, forums, chat rooms, and databases. If your email or passwords appear in a breach, you‘re notified.
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Ad tracker blocking – It blocks ad trackers, analyzes cookie banners, and auto-rejects non-essential cookies and trackers for you.
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Support – Incogni offers email support, live chat, and 24/7 phone support.
In summary, Incogni focuses heavily on enabling you to remove personal data from data broker sites through automated deletion requests. The privacy score, dark web monitoring, and ad blocking provide additional protection.
Next, let‘s examine Privacy Bee and how its approach differs.
An Overview of Privacy Bee‘s Privacy Protection Method
Privacy Bee is a software-as-a-service platform focused on letting you control which companies can access your personal data. Here‘s an introduction to how it works:
Key Features of Privacy Bee:
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Data removal requests – You can manually identify companies and submit data deletion requests yourself. Privacy Bee follows up if they don‘t respond.
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Breach monitoring – Privacy Bee scans the dark web and other sources to alert you about breaches involving your information.
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Ad tracker blocking – It blocks ad trackers as you browse the web to prevent tracking.
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Monitoring dashboard – The dashboard shows you key metrics like breaches found, trackers blocked, and companies you‘ve removed data from.
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Secure storage – Privacy Bee encrypts your data and stores it in a zero-knowledge system that only you control access to.
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Support – You can access email and in-app live chat support.
In summary, Privacy Bee focuses on letting you control your data sharing choices and monitor for breaches across the web. The ad blocking, encrypted storage, and custom opt-outs provide additional privacy protection.
Now that we‘ve introduced both platforms, let‘s do a detailed comparison of their capabilities.
Incogni vs. Privacy Bee: In-Depth Feature Comparison
Both Incogni and Privacy Bee aim to give you more control over your personal data, but they take different approaches. Here‘s an in-depth look at how their key features stack up:
Data Deletion and Removal Capabilities
Arguably the most important criteria is how effectively each service can get your personal data removed from various sources online.
Incogni
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Automated data deletion – Incogni automatically sends opt-out and deletion requests to over 160 identified data brokers. This comprehensive automated process saves you time and effort.
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List auditing – Incogni frequently reviews its data broker list and updates it with new sites. This keeps removal requests being sent regularly.
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Transparency – You can view reports on the status of each request and see which brokers complied or ignored the requests.
Privacy Bee
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Manual data removal – You need to manually identify companies and submit data deletion requests yourself. The benefit is you can customize the list of companies.
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90 day process – Privacy Bee says it can take up to 90 days to fully complete the data removal process, which is quite slow.
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Limited visibility – You have limited visibility into which specific companies actually hold your data.
Verdict: Incogni‘s automated approach is vastly superior for comprehensive and timely data deletion. Privacy Bee‘s manual system places the burden on you.
Dark Web Monitoring
Both platforms provide monitoring to check if your information appears in a data breach:
Incogni
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Broad monitoring – Incogni scans websites, forums, chat rooms, databases, and other dark web sources for your email and passwords.
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Email notifications – You get email alerts with details if your credentials appear in a newly discovered breach.
Privacy Bee
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Automated scanning – Privacy Bee uses bots to scan the dark web and surface credentials exposed in data breaches.
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Dashboard alerts – Breach notifications appear right on your Privacy Bee dashboard for quick access.
Verdict: Incogni and Privacy Bee offer comparable dark web monitoring with email or dashboard alerts. This feature is table stakes for any privacy service.
Advertising Tracker Blocking
Here is how Incogni and Privacy Bee help block invasive ad tracking when you browse online:
Incogni
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Default deny approach – Incogni automatically blocks all non-essential trackers using curated deny lists. This provides the strictest protection against tracking.
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Cookie banner management – Incogni can analyze cookie banners and automatically reject all non-essential cookies on your behalf.
Privacy Bee
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Performance-focused blocking – Privacy Bee blocks harmful, known tracking cookies but may allow more benign cookies to avoid website breakage.
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Limited cookie control – You have less cookie banner support and must manage rejections manually in most cases.
Verdict: Incogni takes a far stricter approach to shut down unnecessary tracking, cookies, and other online ad tracking.
Customer Support
If you need help or have questions, here are the support options provided:
Incogni
- Email support
- Live chat support
- Phone support
Privacy Bee
- Email support
- In-app live chat
Verdict: Incogni offers an extra level of support by providing 24/7 phone assistance. This gives it the edge for urgent customer service needs.
Pricing and Plans
And finally, let‘s examine the pricing and subscription plans offered:
Incogni
- Monthly: $12.99/month
- Annual: $6.49/month (billed $77.88 upfront)
Privacy Bee
- Annual: $39.99/year
Incogni also offers limited-time discounts and promo codes that can bring the price down further.
Verdict: Incogni provides far better value, with options as low as $6.49/month. Privacy Bee‘s single $39.99/year plan costs more.
Head-to-Head Comparison Summary
To sum it up, here‘s a high-level overview comparing Incogni vs Privacy Bee:
| Incogni | Privacy Bee | |
|---|---|---|
| Data Deletion | Automated requests to 160+ data brokers | Manual data removal requests |
| Dark Web Monitoring | Scans websites, forums, chat rooms & databases | Automated scanning bots |
| Ad Tracker Blocking | Strict default deny approach | Performance-focused blocking |
| Cookie Consent Management | Auto cookie banner analysis and rejection | Limited automation – manual banner management |
| Customer Support | Email, phone, and live chat | Email and in-app live chat |
| Pricing | As low as $6.49/month with annual plan | $39.99/year |
Why I Recommend Incogni As the Best Choice
Based on this in-depth look at features, capabilities, and pricing, I think Incogni is the clear winner for most people:
1. Automated data deletion – Incogni‘s automated removal requests are far superior to Privacy Bee‘s manual process. Automation saves you time and effort.
2. Ongoing auditing – Incogni regularly reviews its broker list to keep your data scrubbed. Privacy Bee has no recurring process.
3. Affordable pricing – Incogni‘s annual plan brings the monthly cost down to only $6.49. That‘s excellent value.
4. Phone support – Incogni is the only option with 24/7 phone support, which can be critical for urgent issues.
5. Stricter blocking – Incogni takes a stronger stance on shutting down non-essential ad trackers and cookies.
Of course, Privacy Bee may be a better fit if you require specific custom features. But for most mainstream consumers, Incogni provides the best all-around solution.
Their automated data deletion capabilities, constant auditing and opt-out updates, unbeatable pricing, and stellar customer support make Incogni my #1 recommendation for taking back control of your privacy.
Conclusion: Regain Your Online Privacy with Incogni
Third-party data collection and invasive tracking are out of control online. Your personal information is being bought, sold, and monitored at an unprecedented scale by data brokers, advertisers, and other entities.
Powerful privacy tools like Incogni empower you to take back control and remove your data from these systems. Incogni‘s automated approach to contacting over 160 data brokers on your behalf is extremely effective.
Combined with dark web monitoring, strict ad tracker blocking, responsive support, and affordable pricing, Incogni offers robust online privacy protection.
I recommend taking advantage of their 30 day money back guarantee to try Incogni risk-free today. Within minutes, you can have a powerful ally in the fight to regain your online privacy in 2023 and for years to come.
The choice is clear – if you‘re serious about removing your personal information from the grasp of data brokers, Incogni is the best solution available today. Get started now and take a stand for data privacy.
