Hi, this is Alston. Today we are going to look into an email cleaning software called AgainstData. Basically, if you are looking for an email cleaning solution where you want to bulk unsubscribe from mass email senders or send deletion data requests for your personal data, this software will help you do that effectively.
In this video, I’m going to show you the software and give you a live example to demonstrate how it works. I have an email inbox that contains around 355 pages of Gmail data. I want to see how quickly I can clean up this data and identify who is sending me the most emails.
Getting Started with AgainstData
First, I’m going to log into the AgainstData system with my Google Gmail account. When I try to log into my Gmail account, it asks if I will allow this access. The system needs to review access to my Google account because they need to read all your emails in order to perform this sort of cleanup. You want to make sure to check this permission and click on continue.
Once that is done, I am immediately greeted with a welcome screen. When I click on that, it asks me to fill up some basic details regarding my personal information. After completing the setup, I receive a congratulations message confirming that I’m all set.
Initial Email Scanning Process
As soon as I started filling in those details, the system immediately began finding emails from my inbox. I waited to see how many emails it would discover. The software quickly identified several categories of emails, including personal emails, promotional emails, and notifications.
The system showed me exactly who is sending me the most notifications. I could see emails from Google AdSense, PayPal, Amazon Associates, and various promotional lists. You can see many different types of promotional emails that the system categorized for me.
Watch Me Clean 355 Pages of Emails
When I navigate to the clean inbox section and go to the homepage, I can see that there are 70 senders emailing me. With one click, I can unsubscribe from all of them. When I click on that option, I can see exactly who is sending me content that I’m not interested in. Obviously, you can click on unsubscribe and immediately get unsubscribed from those emails.
For example, when I click on unsubscribe for a particular sender, the system asks me whether I want to delete the existing emails or just unsubscribe as it is. When I click on delete, I see a message indicating that the app needs permission to access my account. First, I gave permission only to read the emails, but now I’m giving permission to actually delete the emails as well.
After granting the necessary permissions, the system automatically deleted 29 emails. This gives you a clear idea of how powerful this tool is. As you scroll through the interface, you can see all the different email promotions. For each sender, the system shows you the person’s name, the actual email address, how many emails they sent, and when the last activity occurred.
Managing Notifications and Subscriptions
The notification section works similarly to the promotional emails section. I can see notifications that I want to unsubscribe from and delete. For example, PayPal is something I might like to keep, so I’m keeping it. However, there are other senders I want to unsubscribe from and delete, so I do that with a simple click. The system immediately unsubscribes me and deletes the mail, which is really good. The interface is straightforward and not overcomplicated or anything like that.
I can easily see who the senders are and take appropriate action. For instance, I might choose to unsubscribe from certain services while keeping others that are important to me.
Managing Who Has Your Data
Once you unsubscribe from various senders, you can click on the personal data section. This feature shows you all the companies who are holding your personal data. Maybe you want to get something unsubscribed or get your data deleted from those companies.
If you’re looking to take action, for example, let’s say you want to deal with a company like Image Guru. When you select “take action,” the system tells you that Image Guru holds your data and asks what you would like to do. It provides basic information about their company, what industry they’re in, and shows you statistics like how many people have deleted their data from that company (in this case, 14 people).
The system also displays a privacy score. Generally, for better privacy, you’ll see a bigger number indicating a better score. You can see what kind of data you are sharing with each company. For each company, you have the option to either ask for deletion or trust them.
If you want to keep a relationship with a company, you can trust them. For example, maybe you want to trust YouTube. You can see how many people have deleted their data from YouTube, and if you want to trust this company, you can do that. When I click on trust, it automatically moves that company into the trusted companies list.
Sending Deletion Requests
Now, let’s say I want to find something to delete. Maybe there’s a company where I want to take action. When I select “take action,” I can see that many people have deleted their data from this company. I want to ask for deletion, so I click on that option.
The system explains that it will start taking action by sending a deletion request to the company, informing them that they shouldn’t use your data anymore. It provides you with details about the request, and you simply click on the continue button. The system will ask for permission to write an email on your behalf so it can send emails representing you. I just click on “send deletion request,” and it’s as simple as that.
As soon as I complete that action, I get a new request assigned in my dashboard. When I click on it, I can see that it is waiting to be sent. The email hasn’t been sent immediately, but the status changes after around three to four minutes. What the system did was write an email on my behalf, including all my details and providing all the necessary information.
The interface displays the communication in a conversation style format. This means that when you get a reply from the company, you can reply directly from the AgainstData interface rather than needing to go into Gmail. This allows you to track all the data correctly and individually for each company.
You can also select requests and mark them as solved. Whenever a request is finished, you can mark it as solved, which helps you maintain a categorized section for tracking your data deletion requests throughout the year.
Does It Actually Work? (Proof)
I wanted to verify whether the system actually sent the email as promised. To do this, I logged into my email account to check. I went into my sent folder, and sure enough, the system had actually sent the deletion request email to the company. The email contained all the same details that were shown in the AgainstData interface, requesting that they erase all my information. The system successfully sent all the requests on my behalf.
The system indicates that companies should delete your data within 20 to 90 days automatically, depending on their policies and legal requirements.
Final Thoughts
That’s it—that’s how easy it is to use AgainstData. I find it really interesting with its good interface, and it does what it’s supposed to do in a really effective manner. Hopefully, this guide will help you clean up your email inboxes and make them much more effective when you’re handling your email communications.
Feel free to try it out and let me know what your suggestions are. If you have any doubts, please let me know, and I will try to cover them in future content.