Show HN: Auto-identity-remove – Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS

stephenlthorn

I got tired spam calls and text, so I built a script that automates the opt-out process across 500+ data brokers on a monthly schedule. Where I need help: The heuristic approach misses a lot. Many of the generic sites have unique flows the four generic strategies don't catch. I'm looking for people who want to: - Verify which generic sites are actually succeeding vs. silently failing - Add explicit broker definitions for high-value sites that are currently on the generic path - Test on non-macOS (launchd scheduling is macOS-only; cron fallback would help Linux/Windows users) - Handle email verification flows (script submits the form but can't click confirmation links in your inbox) Repo: https://github.com/stephenlthorn/auto-identity-remove No personal data in the repo — setup script prompts for your info locally and keeps it gitignored.

7777777phil

cool idea, happy to try it out > Searches each data broker site for your name + state Is this US only or would it also work for international profiles (and if so what would be the "state" equivalent)?

LoganDark

I got tired of spammers having my information, so I built a tool that submits an up-to-date copy of my information to over 500 websites. Surely this will help. Jokes aside, I unironically suspect the purpose of many opt-out forms is merely to record the up-to-date information.

guidedlight

> Name, city, state, ZIP, email, phone Does this work for anyone outside the US as well? e.g. Will it work for an Australian?

ramshorst

Nice ! Is it a command line tool ? What info does it need to operate ?

projektfu

Interesting. Have you been using it a while and is it working to reduce spam?

airstrike

> 4. Solves CAPTCHAs via CapSolver (AI-powered, ~$0.001/solve) Right, so my suspicion was correct: I'm the only one being inconvenienced by the same old captchas.

ramon156

The only thing that is tied to MacOS is launchd, seems like that's useful info to add to the docs. I don't know if you can just do a run from the CLI. Supporting Systemd should be easy. Not sure what windows uses.

IgorPartola

Back in 2011 or so the Yellow Pages still delivered physical phone books to ever address in the state where we were. My city literally sent out an extra off cycle recycling truck the next day to pick them all up. Everyone threw them out. Well my coworkers and I realized that the opt out form just needed an address. We contemplated pulling all known addresses for the entire country and automating submitting them all over several months to opt everyone out. I don’t think it ever materialized but we had a good chuckle about the emergency meeting the Yellow Pages web devs would have had and at what percentage of opt outs.

IgorPartola

Any chance of this not needing to run on a Mac? I would try it out but want to run it in a Docker container.

mixtureoftakes

you ever look on a title and just immediately know that its going on the frontpage + staying there

CodeCompost

Now this is a good use of AI

victorbjorklund

Sweet, I've been wondering why it doesn't doesn't exist as an open source solution.

pards

I tried this (as a Canadian): 1. It asks you to optionally sign up for a bunch of other services like Spokeo 2. It asks for access to your email via Apple's Mail app which I don't use 3. I got a lot of 404s anyway 4. Many sites require manual intervention to work Nice idea, but it needs a LOT of TLC to make it generally useful. I suspect that having a non-numeric "zip" code and a non-US address might be breaking a lot of the automation.

amelius

I'm wondering if this isn't a nice automated way to send your information to 500 data brokers.

WhitneyLand

Could this task be a nice benchmark for computer use models? Would interesting to see the success rate for Claude Cowork or Codex’s equivalent feature.

Waffle2180

The state tracking and manual fallback are the most interesting parts to me. For a tool like this, I’d really want a dry-run/audit mode that shows which fields would be submitted to which broker before anything is sent. The awkward threat model is that the tool reduces exposure, but a broken selector could also leak personal data to the wrong place.

3RTB297

Having done data broker opt-outs manually using the Big Ass Data Broker Opt Out List ( https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-Li... ), very little of the process can be automated. Intentionally. A few of these services ask you to go find your record among their lists first, so you can confirm which record you want removed using the URL of the record. So either it has to guess on that, or simply isn't doing it.

hash872

Has anyone had any luck deleting themselves from the data brokers who sell cell data to political texters and/or survey companies? Those are the ones I really want to opt out of

bborud

Nothing they do actually improves society so in a healthy society we would be able to outlaw what they do. But we don't. So we can't.