alt Hacker NewsI got tired spam calls and text, so I built a script that automates the opt-out process across 500+ data brokers on a monthly schedule.
Where I need help: The heuristic approach misses a lot. Many of the generic sites have unique flows the four generic strategies don't catch. I'm looking for people who want to:
- Verify which generic sites are actually succeeding vs. silently failing - Add explicit broker definitions for high-value sites that are currently on the generic path - Test on non-macOS (launchd scheduling is macOS-only; cron fallback would help Linux/Windows users) - Handle email verification flows (script submits the form but can't click confirmation links in your inbox) Repo: https://github.com/stephenlthorn/auto-identity-remove No personal data in the repo — setup script prompts for your info locally and keeps it gitignored.
Does this current approach succeed for many sites? I see that this repo was clearly vibe coded or at least heavily used AI to write it. That can be fine, it just makes it more difficult to follow how much was done already and how much is left to get this properly working. As for email verification, a stopgap solution could be to just tell me to click confirm on the emails and which senders to look out for. Properly reading the actual inbox on record across providers could be difficult, it requires an actual email client. Also, forgive me if I'm off base on this one, but your comment appears to be AI generated. If so, that violates site guidelines.
> Don't post generated comments or AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#generated