Verification Methodology

What "Verified" Means

DataWipe checks each opt-out URL on a regular schedule. Each check records: HTTP status, redirect chain, page content fingerprint, and the presence of expected form fields and keywords. Status is assigned as follows:

• OK — Page loads correctly and expected content is present.
• Changed — Page loads but content has significantly changed from the last verified version.
• Broken — Page returns an error, or expected content is missing entirely.

How We Detect Changes

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. Form Field Analysis: Each endpoint has expected form markers. Missing markers indicate the opt-out form has changed or been removed.
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 Schedule

• Primary brokers (top 10 by search volume): every 72 hours
• Secondary brokers: weekly
• Long-tail brokers: bi-weekly
• Any broker with a recent change event: increased frequency for 30 days

What We Don't Do

• We don't submit opt-out requests on your behalf.
• We don't collect your personal information to test removals.
• We don't scan the dark web or breach databases.
• We don't store any data that would make us a data broker.

How Guides Are Updated

When our Freshness Engine detects a change, it triggers a review process. An AI-assisted draft may be generated, but it is never auto-published. Every guide update requires human review before going live. All guide URLs are validated against the broker's known domains.

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.