Hey everyone, I need some advice on something that’s been weighing on me.
Last year, my close friend went through the worst breakup imaginable. Her ex posted intimate photos of her online, and within weeks her name was showing up in Google search results. She lost a job opportunity because the hiring manager found them during a background check. Her family saw them. She went into a deep depression and it took months of therapy to recover.
Here’s what shocked me most: When we tried to get help, we discovered that professional reputation management services cost $5,000-25,000+ per year. That’s completely out of reach for normal people. The “affordable” DIY solutions were confusing and took forever. By the time you realize you have a problem, the damage is often already done.
I keep thinking – what if we could prevent this from happening in the first place?
My team and I (we work in tech/AI) have been building a service that monitors your digital footprint 24/7 and alerts you the moment your personal info appears online anywhere. Think “Google Alerts” but specifically for privacy threats.
It would:
- Scan Google, social media, data brokers, forums, etc.
- Monitor for your name, photos, address, phone number
- Send instant alerts when threats are detected
- Help you request removal of harmful content
- Deepfake monitoring (deep fake platforms using your name)
- Family plans to protect kids digital footprint
- Cost $12-25/month (vs thousands from competitors)
But here’s where I need advice:
- Am I being naive? Is this actually helpful or am I just projecting from one bad experience?
- Would people actually use this? Or do most people think “it won’t happen to me”?
- Is the pricing too high for regular families? We want to make it accessible but need to cover costs.
- Are there downsides I’m not seeing? Privacy concerns, legal issues, etc.?
- Should I focus on this or am I wasting time? We’ve built the MVP but wondering if we should pursue it seriously.
The personal part: Watching my friend go through this was heartbreaking. She’s doing better now (therapy helped a lot), but it cost her $5,000 in legal fees and 6 months of her life. I keep thinking about all the people going through this silently who don’t have support or resources.
I know privacy protection sounds boring compared to flashy startups, but revenge porn, stalking, identity theft – these things destroy lives. If we can help prevent even a few people from going through what my friend did, maybe it’s worth it?
Has anyone here dealt with online privacy issues? Would something like this have helped? Is there a real need for something like this?
Any honest advice would be really appreciated. Thanks for listening.
Comments
My initial thoughts-
Theres services that already catch name mentions and send them to you so there may be a way to buy that tech rather than create it, if thats cheaper. I would use a service that tracks for my phone number & likeness. But how do you ensure it’s actually the user and not someone similar looking? Does it pick up simply likeness or only likeness AND name paired? How do you delineate people with the same name? How are you ensuring that people that sign up are signing up for themselves and not using it to stalk someone? If the user has to provide personal info, your security has to be airtight because one hack/leak and you’ve basically destroyed your business because of the whole premise being security. I’d expect the “helpful removal” to be as easy as a link and possibly submitting a template response calling for a removal.
I don’t need a response to all these, these are just my initial thoughts so just some things to think about if you haven’t already
people need to stop taking nudes and think nothing will happen specially since the internet basiclly controls everything now.
This is a genuinely underserved niche, and sadly, increasingly relevant. I think it has legs but.. you will need to overcome the “it won’t happen to me” bias.
Cost is feasible and probably less than LifeLock or Aura. 12 is easy, 25 needs to be a premium offering. Consider tiered plans.
Downsides are monitoring and reporting third-party content requires strong terms of service and data use disclaimers. False positives can erode credibility. If you offer take down services you want legal SOPs per platform [DMCA, GDPR]. And finally, security. You’ll be privy to sensitive data, think encryption, audits and transparency in the build process.
If you have the MVP it’s worth chasing imo.
A dashboard with an exposure score would be swell.
I think if done right this could be a great service
I hope there is something that she can do legally. Part of the problem that ive thought about in my own life and researched is owning your name and likeness. Then, she would have total control – but also here the are tangible damages. I was always terrified (still am) because I went thru a terrible breakup and my ex lived with a pedo (literally) and Im pretty sure there were camera in the room – there was literally a garbage can with a whole cut out. I did absolutely nothing bad to my ex – but things went all sorts of wrong somehow (assuming lots of lies) and other things that this whole group of friends did to retaliate against me for something that was very major and the right thing to do. Ive been terribly concerned. Laws about the internet are not in place for this. I dont watch porn nor do I have friends who are into that – I would have no clue and its so difficult to even find anything with you in it – no matter what – I think unless it comes back to you in the obvious ways it did to her. So even if its out there and I dont know about it – its still hurting me. I never gave anyone the rights to do that (proverbial me too).
From what Ive researched – the laws vary state by state. Yet, the internet has no boundaries. I would partner with some of the nonprofits that have been established – and with any law enforcement who are involved with these types of cybercrimes – and attorneys who deal with IP and internet laws.
I like the idea of making it affordable for sure. Something like this sounds necessary.
How would you be able to sort through information you agree to have taken vs information obtained illegally? I know next to nothing about this stuff, but I know so many “agreements” you click allow the company to take your info and many companies then sell that info.
This sounds like a fantastic idea. Their are a lot of people like me who care a lot about their digital footprint. so this will be incredibly useful.
I keep thinking – what if we could prevent this from happening in the first place?
Here is a crazy thought, how about ppl stop sending nudes/videos of themselves or stop consenting to being filmed while they do it, that should solve about 90% of the problem,
The other 10 % however is another story, because unfortunately there are some creeps out there who do all kind of shit, secret cameras, taking photos without consent and so on, those should be handed to the authorities and treated with no mercy.
“Help you request removal of harmful content” feels pretty weak. Monitoring is all well and good, but there are many options for this already. The issue is what to do when the monitoring identifies something. Can you actually get this content removed? If so, how, and how is your solution better than the current ones.
Otherwise you’re just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Did your friend call the police? What was done was a crime?
And since you are really posting to try to validate product market fit for your startup, you need to think about if your product will report crimes (tricky) or have all the info and not report crimes (tricky).