Harassment and threats of violence due to the socio-political climate have increased dramatically over recent years. A web scrubbing service addresses the institutional need for a solution that helps protect personal information online, particularly for those most often targeted at U-M–VIPs, faculty, and other community members.
A web scrubbing service provides a convenient and efficient means to remove online personal data. Individuals subscribe to a service, submit specific personal information, and the vendor will perform data removal requests on the individual’s behalf to a range of data brokers and websites.
U-M has contracted with Optery as its third-party web scrubbing service.
Benefits
Optery offers the following benefits to the U-M Community:
- U-M negotiated contract and enterprise unit pricing.
- Easy-to-use platform that requires minimal administrative efforts by the U-M community.
- User-friendly dashboard to track progress.
- Monthly automated scanning and removals to keep you opted out.
- Ability to send automatic or custom opt out requests.
- Automated removals from 635+ data brokers and websites.
- Ability to send invitations for individuals to sign up for the service on their own.
- And more…
Service Administration
Units administer the Optery Web Scrubbing Service, Optery, with support from the ITS Privacy Office. Units can submit a service request to ITS-Privacy to get set up with Optery, which includes determining licensing for their unit, designating a unit administrator, and attending an onboarding meeting with Optery. Units determine who will receive invitations to use the service, and unit administrators initiate the setup process with those individuals through Optery, beginning with an invitation email.
Unit administrators manage Optery accounts in their unit, including tasks such as adding and removing individuals. They are the primary point of contact in their unit for Optery administration.
Support
- Units that want to get set up with the Web Scrubbing Service should submit a service request to ITS-Privacy.
- Unit administrators and individuals using Optery should visit the Optery Help Desk and FAQ to utilize their support resources.