Introducing Kanary Copilot

Introducing Kanary Copilot

In the original Legend of Zelda, when you’re starting the game, an old man offers you a sword saying, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” That sword comes in handy protecting yourself and winning the game. Unfortunately, there’s no such guide for the Internet. Being online is magical, powerful, and inevitable, but when facing monsters, we find ourselves ill-equipped and alone. We waste time reading outdated guides, sifting through advertisements, reaching out to law enforcement, figuring out who to trust.

Since starting Kanary in 2020, we’ve supported members dealing with doxxing, stalking, scams, and fraud. Data removal from search engines and data brokers was a small monster to fight in the context of the ever changing and complex problem of online safety. Our team recognized the need for better and faster assistance for members.

To make this a reality, we needed to build something new. Something faster, higher impact, and highly accessible. So a year ago, we started the journey of building Kanary Copilot, a mobile app that guides you through tasks like blocking Google from showing your home address. We recently released Copilot to the App Store on Cyber Monday. It’s still early, but it’s the start of a foundational shift we’re excited to share with you.

How it works

Kanary Copilot guides you through high priority issues with your online safety. If you’re actively fighting against an attack, you can act as fast as you need to and work with our team via live chat. And as things calm down and you want to build digital hygiene habits, Kanary reminds you to check in on bite-sized series. If you’re a fan of Duolingo’s Owl, you’ll like Kanary Copilot. Instead of doomscrolling, you can take advantage of bus rides, bathroom breaks, and airport lines to make big moves to protect your safety. More on how it works on our FAQ. If you have specific questions, we'd love to chat with you on Discord.

Kanary Copilot vs Kanary Cloud

You may be wondering how Copilot is different than our web app, Kanary Cloud. With Kanary Copilot, you start automations from your device whereas with Cloud, we run automations on our servers for you. Right now, Copilot covers the top 10 most common sites covered by Cloud, and we are actively building new integrations across more sites. There are advantages with each product.

The pros of Copilot on your device:

• Run scans and removal request whenever you want

• See exactly what is getting done by Kanary

• Connect securely to 3rd parties like Google or Twitch to cover more risks

• Save money as it’s less expensive to run

• Learn more about your footprint and how to deter attackers

• Live chat with support

The pros of Kanary Cloud on our servers:

• Set it and forget it

• Only check in when you want a status updated

• All you need is a browser to set up and access

• Human support team reviews results

Weighing these options, we believe the outcomes you’ll get with Copilot, both in terms of securing your personal information and strengthening your own digital defense skills, are stronger than the benefit of “set it and forget it” with Cloud.

Again, it’s early and we are measuring outcomes on Copilot vs Cloud. We track how often people check in, removal rates and speed from Google, and escalation volumes to California’s Attorney General. So far, we’ve seen promising results removing data from difficult sites like Nuwber and PeopleConnect.

What this means for you

Current members will continue having access to Kanary Cloud and can join Kanary Copilot to accelerate removals and access new features. It’s free and premium features are available in Copilot if you’re already a premium member. As we grow Copilot, you’ll have the opportunity to transition your Cloud account to a Copilot-Only account. More on that later this year.

If you’re new to Kanary, and are not joining through your organization or employer, you will only have access to Kanary Copilot. You can download for iOS on the Apple App Store. For Android, join the waitlist for early access. We’re getting there asap.

If you’re joining Kanary as an organization or employer with Kanary for Teams, you and your team will have access to Kanary Cloud, Kanary Copilot, and Admin tools for managing onboarding, offboarding, and accounts. Copilot is not required for Kanary to have an impact finding and removing personal data from the web. But we encourage folks to use it for the fastest results.

Take this!

Right now, we want to be that old wise man from Zelda who gives guidance without asking for anything in return. This is why Kanary Copilot is free and available to anyone using iOS (Android coming soon). There are still some rough edges and open questions, but as we continue to learn from our members, we will refine our plans and build what is most important to you all. The best way to get early access to new features and stay up to date on our roadmap is by joining our team on Discord.

Keep calm and Kanary on,

💛 Team Kanary