DataWipe

Verification Methodology

What "Verified" means at DataWipe, and how our Freshness Engine works.

What We Verify

Every opt-out guide in our directory goes through a multi-layer verification process. We check that the opt-out URL is reachable, that it leads to the correct domain, that key form elements are present, and that the content hasn't materially changed since our last review.

How Verification Works

  1. HTTP Reachability: We make an HTTP GET request to each opt-out URL and follow all redirects, recording the full redirect chain and final destination.
  2. Domain Allowlist: The final URL must match the broker's registered domain. A domain mismatch triggers a Critical alert — it could indicate a page hijack or redirect to an unrelated site.
  3. Content Fingerprinting: We compute a normalized text hash (SHA-256) of the visible page content. This lets us detect when content changes without storing the page itself.
  4. Keyword Verification: Each endpoint has expected keywords (e.g., "opt out", "remove", "privacy") and form markers. Missing markers indicate a form change.
  5. Change Classification: Changes are classified by severity based on text similarity — under 5% is OK, 5-40% is Minor, over 40% is Major. Domain mismatches and 404s are Critical.

Verification Cadence

Primary brokers are verified weekly. Secondary brokers are verified every two weeks. Long-tail brokers are verified monthly. Any broker with a recent change event is re-verified within 24 hours.

What We Don't Do

  • We never submit opt-out forms on behalf of users.
  • We never scan for or collect personal information.
  • We don't scrape personal data from broker sites.
  • We only access publicly available opt-out pages that any user could visit.

Politeness Policy

Our bot (DataWipeBot/1.0) respects robots.txt, limits requests to one per domain per 10 seconds, and uses exponential backoff for rate-limited responses. We only access opt-out and privacy pages — never search or listing pages.

Transparency

All verification results are published in our Freshness Ledger. Change events are available via our Atom feed and JSON feed. Every broker page displays its last verified timestamp.