Brightlines

Brightlines is a Washington, DC-based online privacy and anti-doxxing service that locates and removes personal identifying information (PII) about individuals from the public internet. The service is sold primarily to employers that want to protect staff whose work or public visibility exposes them to harassment, targeting, or threats — including elected officials, community organizers, reporters, researchers, scientists, policymakers, educators, health professionals, gamers, women in tech, and executives. Brightlines positions the offering as a complement to a corporate cybersecurity program, on the argument that preventing online harassment from escalating into physical safety incidents such as doxxing and swatting requires coverage that extends beyond traditional IT security.

Delivery follows a four-step cycle: search across 10 or more databases and online sources (public records, photos, directories, data brokers, and facial recognition systems); analysis that prioritizes risks and recommends next steps; a takedown process covering data-broker opt-outs, other website removals, search results, public records, and image removals; and a prevention stage that uses AI to anticipate future exposure. Under a subscription, intake occurs on day 1, data gathering runs roughly days 2-14, analysis and initial scrubbing days 15-21, and a report with completed actions and next steps days 22-30, after which the cycle repeats monthly. Clients grant a narrowly scoped power of attorney limited to their personal information, which Brightlines uses to submit opt-out requests, sign opt-out documents, and create accounts on their behalf; automatic removal is applied only to data-broker sites, with all other removals requiring express client permission. Clients are assigned random client codes, access to their data is restricted to the assigned analyst and the director of client services, and the company states that data is encrypted in transit and at rest, stored by row in an encrypted warehouse, and purged when no longer needed.

Founding story

Brightlines was created by Shauna, who set the company's vision and leads the team. The stated motivation was to enable people to serve their communities without fear of retaliation, with particular attention to targets of online harassment including women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, vocal allies, and advocates.

Business model

Brightlines sells flexible subscriptions and one-time engagements, primarily to organizations that sponsor coverage for at-risk employees, and also to individuals. Employer-sponsored subscriptions are structured so that the employer receives only billing-relevant information (that an employee enrolled and when a subscription ends), not the employee's reports; an individual may continue the subscription personally after leaving the job. The company works with cybersecurity teams, operations directors, and HR as its organizational buyers.

Recurring subscription fees with monthly report cycles, plus one-time engagements. The company frames its pricing as an alternative to executive protection services with high annual fees and to low-cost DIY data-removal tools.

Traction

The company states it is trusted by 25 companies to proactively protect their employees and offers client references. A third-party business-data profile lists the company in the 1-10 employee range. Brightlines was selected for the Techstars Equitech Accelerator class announced in March 2024.

Latest developments

In March 2024, Techstars announced Brightlines among ten companies in the third Techstars Equitech Accelerator class, a thirteen-week Baltimore-based program run with UpSurge Baltimore and led by Managing Director Adam Phillips, concluding with a Demo Day on June 6, 2024. Brightlines posted its own announcement of acceptance into the program on May 6, 2024.