Thank you for your constructive comments. This calls into question my purchase, but it’s better to know.
I don’t know German law, but the CrabClear service is managed by the company meetergo, and on the meetergo website there is a complete imprint in German and English.
I have no idea if this is legally sufficient, but it looks transparent and clean to me.
Based on the source I linked in #18, I think it is insufficient.
It would be great if you would reach out to them and bring up some of the concerns mentioned in this thread.
My bad, I take back what I said then. I should have read everything. I will try to contact them.
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Sorry for the French, it basically just says they are not available and will email me back. I will come back to you when I know more.
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It would be good if you could look into this, since there should be a 30-day money-back guarantee if serious problems come up. The issues you mentioned before don’t worry me too much yet, because it is relatively new.
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Yes, I will also take the refund if it is too serious. I have 3 weeks left.
(link)
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Small update: I received CrabClear’s request inside one response, and it seems fine. I’m copying it as text because I need to delete information from many spots.
Dear xxxx Privacy Team,
I am writing on behalf of xxxx to formally request the deletion of all personal data you may possess about them, in accordance with applicable privacy laws including:
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Section 1798.105
- Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) § 59.1-577
- Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) § 6-1-1308
- Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) Sec. 11
- Other applicable state and international privacy legislation
Consumer Identification:
XXXX
Legal Authorization:
I am acting as an authorized agent on behalf of the above-named consumer. The consumer has provided written authorization dated xxxx, 2025, which I maintain on file and have attached to this email. Under applicable regulations, businesses cannot require Power of Attorney for authorized agent requests (11 CCR § 7063(b)).
Scope of Request:
This request encompasses:
- All personal information you have collected, purchased, or otherwise obtained about the consumer
- Information shared with third parties, subsidiaries, contractors, or service providers
- Data obtained from any source, including third-party data brokers, public records, or marketing lists
Under applicable laws, you must also direct service providers and third parties to delete the consumer’s personal information.
Important Notes:
- You are not required to possess personal data about this consumer to process this deletion request. If you do not maintain any personal information about the consumer, please confirm this in writing.
- This request applies regardless of the consumer’s residency or past relationship with your organization, as many privacy laws provide rights based on data processing activities rather than solely on residency.
- We are submitting this request to all data brokers that may potentially possess the consumer’s information, as permitted under applicable privacy laws.
Response Requirements:
Please confirm receipt of this request within 10 business days and complete the deletion within the timeframe required by applicable law:
- 30 days under GDPR (extendable to 60 days with notice)
- 45 days under CCPA (extendable to 90 days with notice)
- 45 days under VCDPA, CPA, and CTDPA (extendable with notice)
Upon completion, please provide written confirmation specifying:
- Which categories of personal information were deleted, OR
- Confirmation that no personal information was found in your systems
About CrabClear:
This request is submitted by meetergo GmbH (doing business as CrabClear) as an authorized agent acting on behalf of the consumer identified above. We implement reasonable security procedures to protect consumer information and use consumer data only for request fulfillment, verification, and fraud prevention as required by regulation. We maintain all consumer authorizations on file and can provide additional documentation upon request.
We are registered at:
Hauptstrasse 44, 40789 Monheim am Rhein, Germany
Should you have any questions about this request or need additional information, please contact us at xxxx@crabclear.com.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
CrabClear Data Privacy Team
meetergo GmbH
Hauptstrasse 44
40789 Monheim am Rhein, Germany
Email: xxxx@crabclear.com
Website: [ crabclear.com]
Attachment: authorization.pdf
I’m tagging @jonah because I don’t know if I’m breaking some rule..
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Am I the only one that finds it odd that this company spams out personal info to the internet as a service you pay for to have your information “removed”? I work for a company that is not a “data broker” yet we get sent messages with this blob about many many people. It seems just because we have a privacy contact for inquiries on our privacy disclosure page that their tooling has chosen to start sending out the info to us.
~~~
Full Name: REDACTED
Current Address: REDACTED
Email Address: REDACTED @gmail.com
Phone Numbers: +REDACTED, +REDACTED
Reference Number: REDACTED
Additional Email Addresses: REDACTED @gmail.com, REDACTED @gmail.com
Previous Addresses: REDACTED
~~~
It appears that CrabClear simply sends out this message to any privacy@email they can find. It just does not pass my sniff test - Blasting someones personal info out across the internet aggregated together like this.
How would you request to have your data deleted if you cannot provide addresses? And a lawyer will certainly contact you if you do not know how to handle personal information confidentially.
That’s what all data removal services do, right?
That is kind of my point. CrabClear did not reach out to us to determine how to request removal from us, nor whom should receive this. They are just sending us a dozens of users information to an address they found.
The better way would have been to use the address linked to “If you have a question about our privacy policy”, to actually ask us “Is this the correct place to send requests” instead of sharing the data and not knowing who is on the other end.
Further up in the thread is the request I posted. If you have a different one, please post it here.
Yes, I agree, this is the request they send out. The concept of sending these requests blindly not knowing who is on the receiving end is where it bothers my common sense. People subscribe to have their PII removed, yet, this company is sending it out, unfiltered to unconfirmed locations. They have no idea who (or what) is on the receiving end of these messages. Neither myself, nor the other recipient of our privacy alias had any contact with them before they started sending the data.
This is fine for people who want to comply, but it’s updating the databases of anyone looking to use it in a nefarious way. The better path would be for CrabClear to have reached out with a single message, asking the correct method for contacting us in regards to removal form our systems, confirmed the process with us, THEEN start communicating the data that needs removal, only after this confirmation of who they were sending to.
There is not much else to say.
And apparently, it’s not up to CrabClear to make the process cleaner..
"Hello,
You recently submitted a data subject request to XXX through the CrabClear service.
We are writing to confirm that your request is in process and is being handled by our team. XXX is currently implementing an updated process for handling data subject requests and has been working with CrabClear to support this transition. As a result, processing has taken longer than we originally anticipated for some requests. We want to assure you that we are actively working to complete your request as soon as possible and will update you via email once it’s complete…"
This seems like a silly experiment to me. I don’t even know why I was interested in trying it when there isn’t even any problem. 79€ and I’ve only seen these. It’s not the one who asks that is stupid..
“After conducting a search of our systems and reviewing our records, we were unable to locate any personal data associated with the information you provided. As a result, there is no data to delete.”
edit. I guess I was interested to know if there was something in my ancient Gmail account that I hadn’t been able to delete myself.
I feel like you haven’t quite grasped the utility of this product (what it does and what it doesn’t do). When you pay for this kind of product, you have no guarantee on the amount of data deleted because you can’t know how many brokers hold data about you. There could be hundreds, but also almost none. You pay to send hundreds of messages in bottles, hoping that some will be useful to you. Nothing more.
Yep, I get it. I basically knew there was no data, but I tried anyway.
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