Hi there! If you‘re looking to better protect your privacy online in 2024, you may be wondering – should I use Incogni or Privacy Bee? I‘ve taken a deep dive into comparing these two services to help you decide which one is the better fit. Read on for the full scoop!
What Does Incogni and Privacy Bee Do?
First, let‘s quickly cover the basics of what each service provides.
Incogni is a comprehensive data privacy service that focuses on finding and deleting your personal information from data broker websites. Data brokers are companies that collect vast amounts of consumer data from various sources, and then sell that information to other businesses.
Incogni leverages your privacy rights under regulations like GDPR to submit deletion requests on your behalf to over 150 known data broker sites and people search platforms. A key perk is that Incogni also verifies your data is permanently deleted by these sites.
Privacy Bee helps users discover where their personal data is being used online, and then removes it from any untrusted sources. Their key features include:
- Data discovery – Scans the web to reveal where your info is used
- Data removal – Submits opt-out requests to sites to remove your data
- Privacy dashboard – Displays overview of your online data footprint
- Expert support – Provides guidance on managing your privacy
In addition to opt-out requests, Privacy Bee also provides dark web monitoring and identity theft protection services. Their goal is to give users more insight and control over how their personal data is handled.
Comparing Key Features
Now let‘s do a deep dive into how Incogni and Privacy Bee compare across some of their major features.
Data Deletion Capabilities
Incogni‘s primary focus is finding and deleting your data from known data broker websites. Their service actively scours over 150 of these sites and uses your legal rights under GDPR and CCPA to submit removal requests on your behalf.
A major advantage Incogni has is that they verify your data is permanently deleted by having their system check the sites again after removal. This ensures your data is fully scrubbed, rather than relying on the sites themselves to comply with opt-out requests.
Privacy Bee does offer a data removal service, but it is limited to submitting opt-out requests to sites. They do not provide the same comprehensive scrubbing of over 150 data broker sites like Incogni does. Their data removal capabilities are not as robust overall.
Winner: Incogni
Dark Web Monitoring
Monitoring the dark web for your information is crucial, as personal data is often bought and sold on dark web markets and hacker forums.
Both Incogni and Privacy Bee incorporate dark web monitoring in their services. They scan through dark websites, underground hacker communities, and other shady corners of the web to check if your info is compromised in any data breaches.
If your personal info like your email, passwords, or credit card show up in a breach, you‘re alerted immediately so you can take action to secure your accounts.
According to a 2022 Incogni report, over 15 billion personal data records were leaked on the dark web last year, highlighting the importance of dark web monitoring.
When it comes to the dark web scanning itself, Privacy Bee and Incogni use similarly exhaustive monitoring systems. Both search thousands of dark web sources to cover even obscure breaches. For dark web monitoring itself, the two services are evenly matched.
Winner: Tie
Identity Theft Protection
Having your identity or accounts compromised by fraudsters is a nightmare scenario. To help you recover, identity theft protection provides services like working with experts to restore your identity and manage accounts if you fall victim.
Privacy Bee includes robust identity theft protection and restoration services with all their plans. If you have an identity theft emergency, you can work with their dedicated recovery specialists to help set things right.
Incogni does not directly offer identity theft restoration services. However, their comprehensive scrubbing of your data from data broker sites does significantly strengthen your protection against potential identity theft.
But if you want that extra layer of theft protection and recovery services, Privacy Bee is the way to go.
Winner: Privacy Bee
User Experience
Ease of use and an intuitive interface are important when evaluating a privacy service. You want something you can understand at a glance.
Incogni invests heavily in user experience, and it shows. Their dashboard is clean, simple to navigate, and visually appealing. Helpful features like their data sensitivity analysis, which shows you high-risk personal info, further enhance Incogni‘s stellar UX.
Privacy Bee‘s interface is a bit more dated and text-heavy in comparison. It gets the job done, but lacks Incogni‘s smooth and intuitive UX.
Winner: Incogni
Pricing Comparison
When it comes to cost, here‘s how Incogni and Privacy Bee break down:
Incogni Pricing:
- Monthly – $12.99/month
- Annual – $77.88/year (equivalent to $6.49/month)
Privacy Bee Pricing:
- Monthly – $9.99/month
- Annual – $99/year
At first glance, Privacy Bee‘s monthly rate seems to be the cheaper option. However, when comparing the annual pricing, Incogni becomes significantly more affordable at only $77.88/year vs $99/year for Privacy Bee.
Looking just at the annual pricing, Incogni is the cheaper pick. However, one advantage Privacy Bee has is that their annual plan includes those identity theft protection services we discussed earlier. With Incogni, identity theft protection would require an additional purchase.
So Incogni wins out in terms of sticker price, but Privacy Bee may provide better overall value if you want those extra identity theft features bundled in.
Winner: Incogni (cheaper) or Privacy Bee (more value)
Customer Support Comparison
Having access to responsive customer support can really enhance your experience with any online service. Here‘s how Incogni and Privacy Bee‘s support options stack up:
Incogni Support
- 24/7 live chat assistance
- Email support tickets
- Searchable knowledge base & FAQ
Privacy Bee Support
- Email support
- FAQ knowledge base
- Paid expert support addon
Incogni‘s 24/7 live chat feature is a big differentiator for their customer support. It provides you with instant access to help anytime of day or night. Privacy Bee relies solely on slower email support tickets.
Phone support would give Privacy Bee a boost, but it is only available if you pay extra for their expert support addon.
Winner: Incogni
Incogni Pros and Cons
As you evaluate Incogni, it‘s important to consider both the key advantages and potential drawbacks it offers:
Incogni Pros
- Comprehensively deletes data from over 150 known data broker sites
- Verifies permanent data removal through follow-up checks
- Beautiful, user-friendly interface and dashboard
- Real-time dark web scanning for your info
- 24/7 live chat customer support
Incogni Cons
- No bundled identity theft protection services
- Must pay extra for full identity monitoring capabilities
- Slightly pricier annual plan compared to some competitors
- Deleting financial data requires submitting a written letter
Privacy Bee Pros and Cons
Similarly, here are the top pros and cons for Privacy Bee:
Privacy Bee Pros
- Very affordable monthly pricing starting at $9.99
- Identity theft services included for account recovery
- Dark web scans incorporated in all plans
- Easy opt-out data removal requests
- Phone support available as a paid addon
Privacy Bee Cons
- Data removal limited to opt-out requests
- Does not confirm if removal was successful
- Interface not as modern and intuitive as Incogni
- No 24/7 live chat support
And the Winner Is…
When comparing Incogni vs Privacy Bee head-to-head, Incogni emerges as the winner in my eyes. Incogni‘s biggest advantage is their laser focus on finding and comprehensively scrubbing your data from known data broker sites. Privacy Bee‘s data deletion capabilities simply aren‘t as strong.
Incogni also offers appealing extras like real-time dark web scans, an extremely intuitive interface, and 24/7 live chat support there whenever you need it.
Privacy Bee‘s most significant leg up is bundling those helpful identity theft protection services for free. But their heavier reliance on opt-out requests and lack of live support really loses them points.
At the end of the day, I would recommend Incogni if you want maximum data deletion power to reclaim your online privacy. Their service makes it incredibly easy to scrub your personal info from hundreds of shady data broker sites.
Privacy Bee can still provide value if you specifically want those included identity theft features. But for robust data removal, Incogni takes the cake in 2024.
I hope this detailed feature-by-feature comparison helped provide some clarity! Let me know if you have any other questions as you make your decision between Incogni and Privacy Bee. I‘m always happy to share my insight as an experienced cybersecurity professional and digital privacy advocate.
