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I automated opt-outs for 500 data broker sites (open source)

6 relevance
Score Breakdown
technical depth
5
novelty
5
actionability
5
community
5
strategic
5
personal
5

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2026-05-18 open/source Hacker News (100+)
Automated data broker opt-out runner — removes your personal info from 30+ people-search sites on a monthly schedule - stephenlthorn/auto-identity-remove
Summary

An open-source Node.js tool automates opt-outs from 500+ data broker sites on macOS, using Playwright and CapSolver (AI-powered, ~$0.001/solve) for CAPTCHAs. It tracks opt-out state with a 90-day re-check window, runs monthly via launchd, and sends iMessage summaries. Personal info stays local in gitignored config files.

Key Takeaway

Clone the repo, run setup.js, and schedule monthly runs to automatically remove your personal data from 500+ broker sites.

Why it matters

For a senior engineer building agentic workflows or data removal pipelines, this project demonstrates practical Playwright automation, state persistence, and CAPTCHA handling patterns you can reuse.

Full Article

auto-identity-remove Automated data broker opt-out runner for macOS. Removes your personal information from 500+ people-search sites and data broker databases on a monthly schedule — with CAPTCHA solving, persistent state tracking (so completed opt-outs aren't resubmitted every run), and an iMessage notification when done. What it does Each month, the script: Searches each data broker site for your name + state Finds your specific listing (for sites that need a profile URL) Fills and submits the opt-out form automatically